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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

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http://www.archive.org/details/basiclawofvocaluOOsutrrich 


THE 


Basic  Law 


-OP- 


Vocal  Utterance 


—  BY  — 


EMII^    SUTRO 


New 
108  East  16th 
EDGAR   S.    WERNER 

1894 


^ 


Y^^'^f 


Copyright 

1894 

By  EMIL  SUTRO 


OF  Edgar  S.  Werner,  108  East  16th  Street,  New  York, 
U.  S.  A. 


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THE    BASIC  LA^W 


OF 


VOCAL    UTTERANCE 


PRELIMINARY     REMARKS. 


T  T  is  not  without  a  fetTiiig  of  trepidation  that 
^  I  venture  to  write  for  publication  on  a 
subject  with  which  so  many  eminent  scientists 
have  battled. 

But  I  have  a  message  to  deliver,  entrusted  to 
me  l)y  the  highest  authority,  that  of  nature 
itself,  and  I  shall  not  shrink  back  from  deliver- 
ing it  on  account  of  a  deficiency  of  information 
on  some  of  the  sul)jects  intimately  connected 
there\inth. 

For  the  same  reason,  however,  T  cannot  claim 

tliat  all  my  observations  are  likely  to  be  in  strict 
(7^ 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


conformity  with  established  scientific  facts,  or 
supposed  facts.  I  state  only  that  which  I  think 
is  the  case,  judging  by  the  most  conscientious, 
careful,  and  long-continued  personal  obser- 
vations. 

Had  I  called  scientists  to  my  aid,  I  might,  in 
some  instances,  have  been  more  correct,  but 
would  have  lost  my  originality,  which  I  claim 
for  all  my  observations  throughout.  These 
observations,  on  the  other  hand,  I  firmly  believe 
will  open  up  new  avenues  in  various  directions 
for  scientific  research. 

As  far  as  the  voice  is  concerned,  they  will 
mark  an  epoch  in  history.  A  new  science  will 
thereby  be  inaugurated,  which  will  clear  up 
the  mystery  which  has  surrounded  it,  and 
place  its  phenomena  on  a  scientific  basis. 

This  publication,  in  the  first  instance,  is  a 
simple  recital  of  my  experience  in  attempting 
to  master,  and  in  finally  succeeding  in  master- 
ing, the  pronunciation  of  the  English  language. 

I  have  carefully  noted,  step  by  step,  how  I 
drew  gradually  nearer  to,  and  finally  arrived  at, 
this  result.    I  have  shown  the  way  I  have  gone. 


PRELIMINARY  REMARKS.  9 

in  language  free  from  technicalities,  so  that  all 
may  be  al)le  to  follow  and  arrive  at  the  same 
result. 

It  sounds  strange  to  relate,  however,  that  on 
my  way  to  apparently  so  simple  an  end,  I 
should  have  encountered  mines,  tilled  with  the 
most  precious  material  ever  found,  for  the 
knowledge  of  voice-production  in  general.  This 
material  revealed  to  me  the  hidden  mechanism 
of  the  voice,  not  only  of  man's  voice,  but  of 
the  voice  in  general. 

I  can  scarcely  call  it  a  discovery,  for  it  was 
more  in  the  nature  of  a  revelation,  that  that 
should  have  come  to  me  for  which  scientists  of 
all  civilized  countries  and  of  all  ages  have  been 
searcliing  in  vain. 

I  was  twenty  years  of  age  when  I  first  came 
to  this  country, — an  age  at  which  the  organs  of 
speech  have  taken  such  positive  shape  for  the 
production  of  the  sounds  of  one's  native  tongue 
that  it  is  difficult,  nay,  as  I  have  since  learned, 
next  to  impossible  to  dislodge  them,  and  to 
produce  to  perfectifin  those  of  the  tongue  of 
another  country. 


10 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


Being  possessed  of  a  fair  book  knowledge  of 
the  English  language,  I  was  also  ambitious  of 
learning  to  speak  it  precisely  in  the  same  man- 
ner that  native  born  persons  speak  it.  This  idea 
took  possession  of  me  to  such  an  extent  that 
scarcely  a  day  passed  on  which  it  was  not 
uppermost  in  my  mind. 

How  many  years,  from  that  time  forward, 
I  labored,  trying  to  divest  myself  of  my  German 
accent  in  speaking  English,  I  cannot  tell,  but 
there  were  a  great  many.  Again  and  again  I 
thought  I  had  succeeded ;  and  again  and  again 
always  getting  a  better  insight,  I  found  I  w^as 
still  far  from  my  cherished  aim. 

This  continued  till  within  some  seven  or  eiglit 
years  ago,  when  it  suddenly  daw^ned  on  my  all 
but  despairing  mind  that  that  which  I  had 
attempted  w^as  impossible  of  accomplishment. 
I  became  convinced  tliat  there  were  physical 
obstacles  in  the  way,  which  it  was  not  in  my 
power  to  overcome. 

With  this  knowledge  once  firmly  settled,  I 
abandoned  my  previous  method  of  attempting 
to  learn  by  imitation,    which,  by  the  bye,   has 


PRELIMINARY  REMARKS.  11 

been  everybody's  method  since  time  immemorial 
and,  as  far  as  I  know,  is  everybody's  metliod  to 
this  day,  and  commenced  to  learn  by  analyza- 
tion.  I  tried  to  resolve  the  English  language, 
as  far  as  its  pronunciation  was  concerned,  into 
its  component  parts,  and  by  thus  dissecting  it 
ascertain  liow  it  was  put  together. 

I  cannot  say  that  this  thought  was  with  me 
at  first.  But  this  is  what  it  came  to,  after  be- 
ginning with  finding  certain  difficulties  and 
overcoming  them.  Then  overcoming  more  dif- 
ficulties till,  in  the  end,  all  the  obstacles  that 
had  been  in  my  way  were  removed,  and  I  could 
produce  perfect  English  speech.  To  be  able  to 
overcome  these  difficulties  it  was,  of  course, 
nev'ossary  to  understand  them.  This  was  no  easy 
task.  It  took  years  of  thought  and  close  obser- 
vation before  I  could  say  I  had  come  to  tlie 
bottom  of  them. 

I  undei-stood,  as  already  remarked,  English 
quite  well  before  I  came  to  this  c<nintry,  as  far 
as  reading  and  writing  it  went;  and,  in  the 
course  of  time,  I  had  also  learned  to  s})eak  it 
quite  fluently.      This  hwwhdye^  however,  was 


12 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


in  my  way,  as  it  is  in  the  way  of  all  foreigners 
who  understand  the  written  language.  The 
latter  is  always  before  their  mind's  eye,  which 
makes  their  pronunciation  so  painfully  exact 
and,  therefore,  so  studiously  incorrect. 

Now,  however,  I  commenced  to  learn  speak- 
ing it  over  again ;  this  time  as  a  child  does  its 
mother-tongue.  As  I  watched  this  child's  prog- 
ress I  noticed  each  step,  from  the  first  help- 
less tottering  of  its  limbs  to  their  gradual 
growth  in  strength,  till  at  last  by  their  aid  it 
could  walk. 

All  studies  in  connection  with  the  voice  have 
been  of  a  twofold  nature :  (1)  To  gain  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  instrument  from  which  it  emanates ; 
and  (2)  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  result, 
the  musical  qualities  of  the  voice.  Very  few, 
however,  have  made  it  their  object  to  ascertain 
by  what  means  the  voice  is  evolved  from  its 
instrument.  Unless  we  know  how  we  play  on 
our  instrument,  know  what  mechanical  means 
are  applied  to  draw  sound  from  it,  we  cannot 
expect  to  better  our  mode  of  playing.  All  can 
play  by  gift  of  nature.    But  the  question  is,  how 


PRELIMINARY  REMARKS.  13 

are  they  playing  V  The  knowledge  of  the  con- 
struction of  the  instrument,  the  larynx,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  of  the  musical  qualities  of  the 
voice,  on  the  other,  will  not  assist  us  in 
producing  better  results.  It  will  not  assist  a 
foreigner  in  acquiring  the  correct  speech  of 
another  land.  It  will  not  assist  the  teacher 
of  elocution  or  of  singing  in  developing  his 
pupil's  speech  or  song.  It  will  not  correct 
radical  faults  of  enunciation,  nor  will  it  help  the 
deaf  and  dumb  in  their  struggles  for  expression, 
beyond  their  crude  sounds  of  inharmonious 
sjieech. 

Most  works  heretofore  written  do  not  contain 
much  that  one  can  take  hold  of  and  bend  to 
one's  will,  so  as  to  improve  one's  speech,  song, 
or  vocal  utterance  of  any  kind.  Yet  the  will 
can  do  so  nmch  for  us,  if  we  only  know  just 
what  we  want  it  to  do  for  us.  It  has  been 
vouchsafe*!  to  me,  by  getting  a  better  insight 
into  the  mechanical  process  by  which  speech  is 
produced,  to  be  able  to  show  how  im])r(jve- 
ments  and  g(x>d  results  can  be  obtained  in  a 
practical  manner. 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


The  observations  I  have  made,  beyond  all 
others,  are  in  connection  with  the  air  we  use  for 
s^^eech ;  and  with  the  movements  of  the  tongue, 
the  j^romoter  and  regulator  of  speech.  Hence 
tlie  word  language,  from  lingua,  tongue. 

For  years  I  have  watched  this  delicate  piece 
of  meclianism,  whicli  is  so  constructed  that  it 
works  without  apparent  effort,  noise  or  fric- 
tion. The  person  in  whose  body  it  exists,  and 
by  whose  will  it  is  set  in  motion,  is  scarcely 
aware  that  there  is  any  action  at  all,  although  it 
is  making  countless  noiseless  movements  within 
him.  It  is  ever  ready  to  do  the  bidding  of  its 
master,  the  mind ;  and  its  fatigue  must  be  great, 
indeed,  or  its  illness  severe,  before  it  will  show 
any  sign  of  disobedience. 

I  looked  into  the  workshop  of  the  mouth  to 
ascertain  why,  after  its  machinery  had  enabled 
me  successfully  to  produce  German  speech,  it  so 
obstinately  refused  to  lend  its  aid  in  doing  the 
same  for  me  in  the  production  of  English  s})eech. 
The  impediments  I  had  encountered,  and  which 
I  was  trying  to  overcome,  were  now  of  the 
greatest  aid  to  me;   inasmuch  as  they  enabled 


PRELIMINARY  REMARKS.  15 

me  to  feel  my  way  along  the  lines  in  which 
this  delicate  yet  most  lively  piece  of  mechanism, 
the  tongue,  was  moving.  I  could  not  liave  done 
this  for  my  own  language,  nor  could  the  native 
born  of  any  country  have  done  it  for  his.  It 
was  by  makmg  a  comparative  study  of  mine 
with  a  foreign  tongue  alone  which  enabled  me 
to  accomplish  this. 

There  being  no  difficulties  to  overcome,  the 
machinery  moves  witli  sucli  perfection  for  one's 
own  language  that  its  movements,  partly  on  ac- 
count uf  tlieir  rapidity,  partly  because  they  are 
involuntary,  cannot  be  watched.  They  liave 
been  working  thus  from  our  infancy,  and,  being 
liidden  within  the  inner  recess  of  our  mouth,  do 
not  offer  us  an  opportunity  of  observing  tliem. 

My  tongue,  however,  was  overweighted.  It 
halted,  and  made  an  effort,  when  it  tried  to  pro- 
duce these,  to  it,  strange  and  abnormal  sounds. 
This  gave  me  the  opportunity  of  watching  it, 
and  finding  out  by  what  means  it  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  pro<lucing  these  sounds.  No  phy- 
sician, leaning  his  ear  against  the  brea^st  of  his 
patient,    ever    listened    more    intently    than   I 


16 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


listened  to  the  sounds  of  my  voice.  Witli  an 
acute  ear  for  sounds,  and  knowing  just  what 
was  expected  of  nie,  I  never  stopped  trying  till, 
in  guiding  my  tongue,  now  hither,  now  thither, 
I  finally  hit  upon  the  correct  sound. 

While  I  uo  not  know,  to-day,  how  my  tongue 
moves,  .except  by  induction,  for  German  speech, 
I  know  precisely  what  movements  it  makes  for 
the  production  of  English  sounds. 

My  advantage  has  been  in  this,  that  I  could 
watch  tlie  machinery  while  it  was  in  motion; 
whereas  others  have  observed  what  there  was  to 
observe  while  it  was  standing  still.  By  ex- 
perimenting upon  the  larynx  of  the  dead,  or  by 
thrusting  an  instrument  into  that  of  the  living, 
how  can  it  be  expected  -that  any  reliable  move- 
ments should  have  been  observed  ?  For  it  is 
action,  action  all  the  time  that  is  doing  the 
work.  So  many  agents  have  to  cooperate  in  the 
living  body  to  produce  correct  results  that  the 
default  of  any  one  of  them  will  .suffice  in  neu- 
tralizing the  j^roper  action  of  the  rest. 

It  is  by  watching  the  obstructed  action  of  our 
organs  that  we  can  expect  to  be  able  to  obtaiu 


PRELIMINARY  REMARKS.  17 

correct  results.  I  feel  satisfied,  that  with  ex- 
treme care  and  watchfulness  the  same  as  I  have 
exercise<l  in  connection  with  our  organs  of 
speech,  correct  results  can  often  be  obtained 
where  now  vivisection  is  resorted  to. 

I  do  not  by  any  means  wish  to  sa}^,  however, 
that  I  consider  my  work  to  be  complete.  The 
light  by  the  aid  of  which  I  have  obtained  a 
glimpse  of  the  silent  workshop  in  which  the 
tongue  is  moving  has  been  Imt  a  dim  one  at 
best,  yet  it  has  revealed  enough  to  show  the 
way ;  and  those  better  prepared,  by  their  scien- 
tific and  musical  knowledge,  can  now  pursue  it 
on  furtlier  toward  greater  perfection. 

I  have  been  both  my  teacher  and  my  scholar, 
and  there  never  has  been  a  more  patient 
teacher  or  a  more  industrious  scholar.  During 
long  and  tedious  rides  in  the  street-cars  which  I 
was  daily  obliged  to  make,  this  scholar  was  my 
constant  companion.  During  the  silent  hours  of 
the  night  when  sleep  would  not  come,  he  was 
lying  awake  with  me,  listening  to  me,  and  try- 
ing to  obey  my  most  dictatorial  commands.  I 
have    been    pleased    with    his  industry   and  his 


18 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


progress,  and  that  is  saying  a  great  deal,  for 
I  am  a  most  exacting  taskmaster. 

It  is  tliis  advantage  that  my  metliod  lias,  tliat 
the  principle,  once  understood,  we  can  carry 
an  entire  dictionary  with  us  in  our  heads,  and 
be  constantly  learning  the  pronunciation  of  the 
words,  at  any  time  and  upon  every  occasion. 
We  can  practice  singing  in  the  same  way,  not 
aloud,  but  in  an  undertone  sufficiently  distinct, 
however,  to  make  us  feel  whether  we  are  correct 
or  not. 

Mine  is  the  natural  method  of  learning  to 
speak  a  language ;  others  are  by  imitation  only. 
Where  a  solid  foundation  is  wanting,  there  can- 
not be  a  satisfactory  edifice.  Mine  is  the  solid 
foundation ;  that  of  others,  a  very  unsatisfactory 
structure  without  foundation  in  principle. 

German-English  dictionaries  generally  use 
German  characters  to  give  the  English  pro- 
nunciation. This  is  very  misleading,  there  being 
no  equivalent  for  German  sounds  in  tlie  English 
language,  as  they  are  different  both  in  their 
origin  and  in  their  nature. 

Anyone   in  the    least    acquainted    with    the 


PRELIMINARY  REMARKS.  19 

true  pronunciation  will  know  that  the  same 
is  far  from  behig  correct,  "when  hot  is  rep- 
resented by  ''hat;"  wlien  pale  is  spelled 
''pehl;"  village,  "villedsch;"  her,  "horr;" 
busy,  '  *  bizsi ; ' '  clotl les,  ' '  kloss ; ' '  whose, 
' '  huss ; ' '  whole,  '  *  hohl ; ' '  voice,  ' '  vauzs ; ' ' 
who,  "huh;"  wrestle,  "ross'l;"  German, 
' '  dschorman ; ' '  suggest,  ' '  sogdschesst ; ' '  anx- 
ious, "  ahnkschoss ; "  etc. 

But  why  continue  when  it  is  impossible  ex- 
actly to  render  one  word,  even  the  simplest,  by 
any  sign  or  letter  in  the  Geraian  language  ? 

I  have  taken  the  preceding  at  random  from 
a  key  to  the  correct  pronunciation  of  English, 
contained  in  one  of  the  best  guides  in  existence, 
and  but  lately  published.  Others  are  worse; 
some  of  thorn  actually  bordering  on  the  ridic- 
ulous. Still  the  above  rendering  probably 
conies  as  near  to  the  solution  aimed  at  as  the 
German  language  is  capable  of.  In  this  or  a 
similar  manner  Germans  and  other  foreigners 
are  taught  to  pronounce  English  wherever  their 
countrymen  teach  it,  and  it  is  rare  that,  outside 


)CAL  UTTERANCE. 


of  tlie  countries  in  which  Enghsh  is  spoken, 
anyone  else  teaches  it. 

Everyone  who  has  been  taught  to  speak  Eng- 
lish in  this  imitative  manner  must  again  unlearn 
it,  before  he  can  begin  to  speak  it  correctly. 
Teachers,  above  all,  should  study  these  funda- 
mental principles,  and  possess  themselves  of  an 
"English  tongue,"  without  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  teach  the  correct  pronunciation. 

Germans  learning  English  wdth  a  German 
tongue,  must  twist  their  tongues  into  all  manner 
of  unnatural  shapes  while  attempting  to  pro- 
duce these,  to  them,  strange  and  almormal 
sounds.  A  language  to  be  well  spoken  must  be 
spoken  w^th  ease,  in  a  natural  manner,  and 
without  an  effort,  and  this  can  be  done  only 
when  the  same  mechanical  means  are  employed 
that  are  used  by  native-born  persons. 

It  will  1)0  ol)jected  that  it  is  just  my  system 
which  requires  one's  tongue  to  be  twisted  in  an 
unnatural  manner.  I  can  only  reply  that,  if 
this  is  so,  it  is  not  done  at  haphazard,  but  ac- 
cording to  principles,  and  for  the  purpose  of 
briufirins:   about    correct  results.      Once   accom- 


PRELIMINARY  REMARKS.  21 

plislied,  it  soon  becomes  natural  and  requires  no 
further  effort.  AVitli  a  child  whose  organs  of 
speech  are  still  plastic,  no  effort  is  re(pured  to 
speak  a  foreign  language.  Its  instinct  will  lead 
it  into  the  right  path  at  once,  and  its  organs  of 
sjKjech  otter  no  obstacles  that  cannot  be  readily 
overcome.  These  organs,  once  having  assumed 
shape  in  a  deiinite  direction,  however,  largely 
dictated  by  habit,  it  becomes  a  matter  of  con- 
siderable difficulty  to  give  them  shape  in  an- 
other direction.  This  is  greatly  aggravated  in 
case  of  a  default  of  the  knowledge  of  the  action 
really  required  of  them.  This  knowledge  I  pro- 
jx)8e  to  su])ply,  having  made  a  careful  study  of 
the  mechanical  means  emjiloyed  in  producing 
both  the  German  and  the  English  languages. 

While  my  studies  have  "been  confined  to  these 
languages,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  but  simi- 
lar i-esults  nn'ght  be  obtained  in  respect  to  any 
other  language.  So  that,  in  the  end,  the  pro- 
nunciation of  all  languages  could  be  taught  ac- 
cording to  the  natural  method.  It  is  easier  for 
an  English-speaking  j)erson,  however,  to  learn 
German  than  it  is  for  a  German  to  learn  Euir- 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


lish ;  if  it  were  but  for  the  reason  that  each 
letter  in  German  represents  a  given  sound, 
while  English  vowel  sounds,  as  represented  by 
letters,  are  a  very  uncertain  quantity,  indeed. 

The  mechanical  difficulties  a  German  has  to 
overcome  in  speaking  English,  an  English- 
speaking  person,  of  course,  must  acquire  in 
order  to  enable  him  to  speak  German  correctly. 

Understanding  the  mechanical  requirements 
for  the  correct  pronunciation  of  English,  I  have 
carefully  applied  them  to  my  sjjeech;  and  I 
seriously  doubt  whether  there  ever  has  been 
another  j^erson  who  has  learned  to  speak  a  lan- 
guage in  a  similar  manner  to  tliat  in  wliich  I 
have  learned  to  speak  English. 

Our  native  tongue  is  part  and  parcel  of  our 
being.  It  is  so  intangible  that  we  cannot  grasp 
it  and  lay  hold  of  it  for  the  purpose  of  dissect- 
ini^  it.  What  I  have  done  for  the  Enoflish  lan- 
guage,  therefore,  I  never  could  have  done  for 
my  own. 

It  is  not  without*  reason,  therefore,  that 
people  are  named  for  the  language  they  speak : 
Germans,  Erenchmen,  Englislnnen,   Dutchmen, 


PRELIMINARY  REMARKS. 


etc.  They  retain  this  cognomen  even  after  they 
have  left  the  country  of  tlieir  birth  and  have 
become  citizens  of  another.  Their  language  is 
synonymous  with  their  being,  and  they  cannot 
dispossess  themselves  of  it  and  possess  them- 
selves of  another  to  the  same  perfect  degree, 
any  more  than  they  can  change  the  features  of 
their  face. 

Even  after  my  system  shall  be  perfectly 
understood,  it  will  be  given  to  but  comparatively 
few  to  leani  to  speak  a  foreign  tongue  with  the 
same  perfect  ease  that  they  do  their  own.  It  is 
no  more  likely,  then,  that  the  popular  fancy, 
that  English  will  some  day  become  the  language 
of  the  world,  will  be  realized,  than  that  Ethio- 
pians or  MongoHans  will  eventually  become 
identiiied  with  the  Caucasian  race. 

Before  closing  these  remarks  and  entering 
upon  my  theme  proper,  I  beg  to  be  permitted 
to  say  that  I  have  been  obliged  so  frequently  to 
use  tlie  terms  ''English-speaking  people,"  or 
''Englishmen,"  and  "Americans,"  to  which, 
to  l>e  quite  correct,  should  be  added  "Cana- 
dians, "  "  Australasians, "  "  East  Indians, ' '  etc. , 


u 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


that  I  have  substituted  therefor  the  word  ' '  An- 
gUcans,"  as  representative  of  people  who  speak 
the  Enghsh  language.  This  word  I  shall  make 
use  of  hereafter. 

I  also  want  to  saj  that,  regarding  the  pro- 
nunciation of  the  English  language  or  pecu- 
liarities connected  therewith,  I  have  reference 
only  to  the  manner  in  which  it  is  spoken  in  this 
country. 

Unless  the  German  language  is  specially 
mentioned,  every  remark  has  reference  to  the 
English  language  only.  I  also  beg  to  say, 
that  whatever  merit,  or  demerit  also,  may  belong 
to  the  contents  of  this  publication,  they  are 
originally  mine,  having  consulted  no  person,  or 
work,  in  connection  therewith.  It  was  only 
after  my  system  had  assumed  the  shape  in  w^hich 
it  apj)ears  now,  that  I  looked  up  some  of  the 
authorities;  but  I  have  not  found  that  anyone 
has  pursued  the  same  course  of  studies  that  I 
have. 

If  there  are  repetitions  in  this  little  book,  I 
must  be  forgiven  for  them.  They  are  not  in- 
serted   to   swell   its   volume,    but   to   make  my 


PRELIMINARY  REMARKS.  25 

meaning  more  clear.  Tliey  are  not  repetitions, 
however,  ,in  a  literal  sense ;  but,  like  the  facets 
of  a  diamond,  which  show  its  value  from  idiffer- 
ent  -points  of  view,  or  like  the  photograph  of 
a  beloved  face  which  has  l)een  taken  from  various 
standpoints,  each  giving  the  same  general 
features — they  throw  light  on  my  subject  from 
different  sides,  revealing,  I  hope,  new  features 
and  new  points  of  interest  in  every  instance. 

Finally,  I  want  to  add  to  w^hat  I  have  already 
said  in  the  beginning,  that  this  is  not  a  scientific 
book  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word.  I  am  a 
simple  citizen,  and  not  only  give  my  experience 
and  whatever  knowledge  I  may  possess,  but  also 
take  the  reader  into  my  confidence  in  regard  to 
my  suppositions,  my  thoughts,  and  my  feelings 
even  in  the  most  unscientific  and  unconventional 
manner. 

As  I  owe  no  debt  to  anyone,  except  to  those 
who  may  take  the  trouble  to  read  this  book,  I 
hope  they  will  forgive  me  for  the  manner  in 
which  I  urn  dealing  with  my  subject,  and  with 
them ;  and  I  also  hope  that  I  shall  not  be  held 
t<^  account  too  strictly  f<>r  any  faults  of  fact  or  of 
judgment. 


BREATHING. 


T  T  lias   always  been  believed,  and,  so  far  as  I 

■*-      know,  it  is  still  generally  believed,  that  the 

air,  or  ' '  breath, ' '  we  use  for  onr  speech  is  drawn 

from  our  lungs ;   that  the  air  we  inhale  into  our 

lungs  through  our  nose   or  mouth,  during  the 

act  of  expiration  furnishes  the  motive  power  for 

our  speech. 

I  have  ascertained  that  breathing  through  the 

nose,    for   the  purpose  of  supplying  our  lungs 

with  life-giving  air,  or  occasionally  through  the 

mouth    for    the    same  purpose,    is  a    distinctly 

different  proceeding  from  the  one  by  which  our 

organs  of  speech  ai-e  furnished  with  air  for  the 

production  of  sound.      Breathing  for  speech  is 

carried  on  through  our  raouth  while  we  are  i7i 

the  act  of  speaking.     Even  for  nasal  sounds  we 

draw  on  the  breath  inhaled  through  the  mouth, 

and  do  not  interfere  with  that  which  is  inhaled 

through  the  nose,   all  of  which  goes  to  supply 

our  lungs. 

(20) 


BREATHING.  37 

If  tins  were  not  the  case,  the  vital  function 
of  supplying  our  lungs  with  fresh  air  would  be 
constantly  interfered  with,  through  our  speech. 
The  same  would  cause  a  pause,  be  it  ever  so 
short,  in  expiration;  consequently,  a  similar 
pause  would  arise  between  the  previous  and  the 
next  inspiration.  Breathing,  in  consequence, 
during  speech  would  be  a  very  unreliable  factor. 

There  is  no  connection  between  tlie  two,  how- 
ever, each  performing  its  function  without  any 
reference  to  the  other,  and  without  interfering 
with  each  other. 

It  seems  strange,  yet  it  is  no  doubt  true,  that 
while  we  are  in  the  act  of  speaking  breathing 
through  the  nose  is  carried  on  as  regularly  as  it 
is  in  our  sleep.  While  the  act  of  breathing  for 
nur  lungs  is  regular  and  measured,  generally 
long  drawn  out,  breathing  for  speech  is  irregu- 
lar, generally  short,  and  is  subject  to  the  re- 
(luirements  of  all  the  whims  and  fancies  of 
language. 

In  breathing  for  siKjech  we  take  in  just  enough 
air  fur  the  productitni  of  any  one  given  sound. 
If  there  is  to  be  an  emphasis,  an  additional  vol- 


38  VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

uiiie  of  air  is  absorbed  to  produce  this  emphasis. 
If  a  sound  is  to  be  spoken  low,  the  vohinie  of 
air  will  be  correspondingly  small. 

It  appears  to  me  that  the  air  we  use  for  speech 
never  enters  our  lungs;  but,  being  inhaled  and 
exlialed,  respectively,  for  the  special  purpose  of 
producing  sound  only,  it  simply  supplies  the 
organs  of  speech  Avith  the  necessary  air  to  pro- 
duce sound,  the  same  volume  of  air  inhaled  for 
speech  being  also  exhaled  for  this  purpose. 

In  breathing  for  the  lungs,  in  like  manner, 
the  same  volume  of  air  which  is  inhaled  into  the 
same  is  also  exlialed  from  the  same.  In  teach- 
ing correct  breathing  for  speech  or  song,  there- 
fore, care  nmst  be  taken  to  do  so  for  the  breath 
we  inhale  through  the  mouth  for  the  production 
of  sound,  and  not  for  that  which  we  inspire  for 
the  lungs. 

It  is  popularly  believed  that  speech  is  carried 
on  by  a  continuous  ' '  stream  ' '  of  air  coming 
from  the  lungs ;  or  that  a  large  volume  is  inhaled 
into  the  lungs  and  kept  tliere  as  a  reservoir, 
from  which  to  draw  for  speech  or  song.  If  it 
stream,"  and  ])art  of  it  were  used  for 


BREATHING.  29 

speech,  causing  a  disturl)ance  in  respiration,  how 
could  there  be  a  ''constant"  stream?  The 
inspiration,  as  well  as  the  expiration,  would  be 
a  "perturbed"  stream,  at  best.  If  it  were  a 
"reservoir"  holding  enough  air  to  carry  one 
througli  a  speech  or  a  song,  the  lungs  would 
soon  l>e  in  a  sorry  plight  for  want  of  fresh  air, 
{IS  tliat  which  remains  in  the  "  reservoir  "  after 
the  first  few  notes  would  be  deprived  of  its 
oxygen,  and  the  speaker  or  singer  would  drop 
down  dead  before  he  could  finish  his  speech  or 
song. 

If,  on  the  other  liand,  one  should  stop  every 
time  the  necessity  arose  for  replenishing  "it" 
with  fresh  air,  there  would  be  constant  internip- 
tion  in  our  utterances,  and  no  continue<l  flow  of 
sound  would  be  possible.  That  which  is  ex- 
haled for  s])cech,  consequently,  must  have  been 
j)reviously  inhaled  for  speech,  and  for  that  ]>ur- 
ix>se  only.  The  same  as  that  which  is  exhaled 
from  our  lungs  must  have  been  previously  in 
haled  into  our  lungs,  and  for  their  benefit  only. 

It  does  riot  seem  reasonable,  furthermore,  to 
suppose  that  the  air.  after  having  been  deprived 


30  VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

of  its  main  component  part,  should  be  used  in 
its  vitiated  form  to  produce  sound.  Kor  does 
it  seem  reasonable  that  it  should  not  be  expelled 
from  the  body,  after  having  thus  been  nsed  in 
the  shortest  time,  or  in  the  most  direct  manner 
possible. 

How  tlie  two  streams  of  air  are  kept  separate, 
wliile  using  one  and  the  same  channel,  is  to  be 
explained  in  this  manner :  that  the  air  we  use 
for  speech,  having  a  greater  velocity  than  that 
which  we  inhale  into  our  lungs,  its  rapidity  of 
motion  enables  it  to  pass  the  other  ''bodily," 
without  interfering  with  it  or  being  interfered 
with  by  it.  Its  motion  must,  of  necessity,  be 
rapid  to  enable  it  to  produce  sound.  Even  for 
the  production  of  the  weakest  sounds,  its  ra- 
pidity is  greater  than  that  which  with  a  sluggish 
motion  is  inhaled  and  exhaled  respectively  for 
the  lungs.  The  air  we  use  for  speech  is  of  that 
same  meteoric  kind  that  sparks  are  when  we 
stir  the  fire  in  a  grate.  It  bears  the  same  rela- 
tion to  the  air  we  breathe  for  our  lungs  that 
these  sparks  do  to  the  iira  Their  velocity  and 
density  are  far  greater,   while  their  duration  is 


BREATHING. 


31 


Imt  for  the  inoinent.  Even  with  these  air- 
sparks,  liowever,  there  is  a  difference  as  to  these 
qnahties, — velocity,  vohime,  and  duration, — the 
same  being  regulated  by  those  which  we  desire 
the  sounds  we  are  about  to  produce  to  possess. 
The  voice  may  be  likened  to  a  string-instru- 
ment. Others  have,  perhaps,  more  accurately, 
in  some  respects,  likened  it  to  a  reed-instru- 
ment; but  a  string- instrument  will  better  illus- 
trate my  idea.  The  separate  streams  of  air  we 
ins])ire  and  expire  respectively  for  the  produc- 
tion of  sounds  are,  in  many  respects,  of  the  same 
order  that  strings  are  in  a  string-instrument. 
They  differ  in  thickness  and  in  length ;  and 
the  waves  of  air  they  set  in  motion  differ  in 
volume  and  rapidity.  Some  of  them  reach  down 
as  far  as  it  is  ])ossible  for  them  to  reacli,  while 
some  are  of  medium  and  others  of  short  length. 
Hence  we  say,  sounds  come  from  the  stomach, 
the  breast,  or  the  head ;  each  expression  repre- 
senting a  different  length  of  string  of  air  or  of 
sound.  But  they  are  not  positive,  nor  stationary. 
They  come  and  they  go ;  they  lengthen  and  they 
shorten ;    they  swell  to   mighty   dimensions,   or 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

thej  disappear  altogether;  not  suddenly,  but 
slowly  and  bj  degrees,  as  their  ruler,  the  mind, 
may  command. 

As  the  master  of  a  musical  instrument  repre- 
sents his  emotions  by  the  sounds  he  draws  from 
its  strings,  so  will  the  singer  or  the  speaker 
draw  the  music  lingering  in  his  soul  out  of 
these  living  strings.  Through  them  others  speak 
to  our  hearts,  or  in  other  moods  overpower  us 
with  grief,  or  fill  us  w^itli  anger.  At  times  the 
'*  strings"  suddenly  contract,  at  other  times 
they  expand  almost  ready  to  burst.  Sometimes, 
they  are  filled  with  a  soft,  elastic  fluid,  and 
again  they  may  be  as  dry  as  a  cinder.  They  are 
suspended  from  our  hearts  and  our  souls,  wliose 
throbbings,  longings  and  thoughts  they  interpret 
to  ourselves  and  to  others. 

After  giving  an  account  of  these  air  or  sound 
strings  or  cords,  the  question  still  remains  to 
be  answered  :  How  do  they  originate  ?  What 
gives  these  streams  of  air  this  power,  this  velo- 
city with  which,  by  forcing  their  way  through 
narrowed  passages,  they  produce  sound  ?  Wliat 
is  the  power   which  enables  birds  and  insects  to 


BREATHING.  33 

produce  sounds  apparently  far  beyond  their 
physical  strength  ? 

The  answer  is,  that  the  sounds  do  not  originate 
within  ourselves,  but  beyond  us.  They  have 
their  origin  in  the  air  which  surrounds  all 
beings, — man,  birds  and  insects. 

By  creating  a  vacuum  in  the  air-channels, 
through  expiration,  the  exterior  air  is  forcibly 
drawn  into  them.  By  our  muids  working  on 
our  will-power,  the  latter,  by  the  aid  of  said 
vacuum,  creates  a  draught,  an.  exterior  stream  of 
air  which  is  set  in  motion  tow^ard  the  oral  cavity. 
This  exterior  draught  possesses  akeady  in  a  man- 
ner the  necessary  qualifications  for  the  produc- 
tion of  the  sound  which  the  singer's  or  speaker's 
mind  intended  to  create. 

In  ordinary  speech  this  is  a  proceeding  which 
is  altogether  automatic ;  but  in  speech  produced 
artistically,  such  as  oratory,  or  song,  especially 
in  the  latter,  the  mind  anticipates  the  result. 

It  is  inspiration,  therefore,  which  gives  the 
first  impetus  to  sound,  which  is  its  creator,  the 
cause ;  expiration  is  but  the  efi;ect,  the  result. 
We  must  teach  how  to  inspire  correctly ;  correct 


34 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


expiration  will  then  follow  as  a  matter  of  course. 

It  is  in  the  great  realm  of  air  outside  of  the 
body  where  this  force  is  created,  not  in  the 
lungs,  nor  by  a  stream  emanatijig  therefrom, 
nor  an  accumulation  of  air  therein. 

There  is,  however,  such  a  thing  as  air  being 
' '  held ' '  to  give  us  the  power  of  imparting 
additional  force  to  sounds. 

My  assertion  in  the  beginning  of  this  chapter, 
' '  that  the  expired  breath  for  speech  equals  the 
inspired  breath  for  the  same,"  will  naturally 
provoke  the  question :  How,  then,  is  it  that, 
after  using  our  organs  of  speech  for  any  length 
of  time,  we  have  to  pause  for  breath,  we  are 
' '  short  of  breath  ?  ' '  The  explanation  is,  that 
the  greater  volume  of  sound  being  originated  by 
the  outgoing  voice,  it  is  more  than  likely  that 
we  fail  to  inhale  quite  a  sufficiency  of  air  to 
produce  with  proper  effect  all  the  outgoing 
sounds  we  desire. 

For  this  insufficiency  we  draw  on  the  air 
which  is  ' '  held  ' '  in  the  air-channels  for  this 
very  purpose.  When  this  air  which  is  '^lield" 
becomes  exhausted,  or  nearly  so,  we  take  in  at 


BREATHING.  35 

one  gulp  sufficient  to  supply  the  same  again. 
This  is  the  only  ''reservoir,"  and  it  but  needs 
to  be  replenished  at  long  intervals.  It  is  quite 
possible,  however  (and  I  greatly  incline  to 
believe  this  to  be  so),  that  a  person  who  breathes 
correctly  (which  very  few  ^^ersons  do)  might  go 
on  speaking  or  singing  forever  without  "  taking 
breath ; ' '  the  only  bar  to  his  doing  so  arising 
from  a  fatigue  of  the  muscles  whicli  move  las'* 
tongue. 

I  have  not  in  the  preceding  touched  upon  the 
action  of  the  diaphragm,  nor  sliall  I  attempt  to 
do  so  now,  except  in  saying  that  it  does  for 
speech  what  our  lungs  do  for  respiration,  for 
the  preservation  of  life.  It  forms  a  very  im- 
portant part  of  the  machinery  which  expands 
and  contracts  for  the  admission  and  emission  of 
air  and  sound  resj^ectively.  It  acts  in  con 
junction  with  the  motions  of  the  upper  and 
lower  jaws  and  of  the  tongue. 

For  inspiration  the  upper  jaw  rises,  together 
with  the  soft-palate  and  the  uvula,  ])ut  the 
tongue  falls,  and  so  does  the  diaphragm.  This 
produces  an  extension  of  the  upper  cavity  of  the 


36 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


mouth,  iij^ward  and  downward,  and  of  tlie  air- 
receptacles  of  the  chest  and  stomach. 

For  expiration  the  lower  jaw  falls,  Avhile  the 
tongue  rises,  increasing  the  size  of  the  lower 
portion  of  the  cavity  of  the  mouth  in  both  direc- 
tions. The  diajDhragm  rises,  forcing  out  the  au' 
by  contracting  the  receptacles  which  con- 
tained it. 

All  these  actions  are  subject  to  great  varia- 
tions in  connection  with  the  special  sound  which 
is  to  be  emitted.  They  may  be  slow  or  rapid, 
as  to  time ;  narrow  or  full,  as  to  space ;  or  there 
may  be  a  combination  of  these  actions.  For 
instance,  slow,  yet  narrow ;  quick,  yet  full ;  or 
slowly  extending,  quickly  contracting ;  the  action 
of  the  diaphragm  being  of  a  multifarious  nature 
in  bringing  about  these  changes. 

All  this  is  regulated,  in  the  first  instance,  1)y 
the  sound  we  expect  to  create,  and  the  maimer 
in  which  w^e  inhale  for  such  sound.  The  object 
of  all  these  actions  is  to  create  various  openings, 
or  to  contract  others,  through  which  air  can  be 
forced  to  create  sound;  all  these  parts  being 
those  of  a  wind-instrument,  and  all  these  actions 


BREATHING.  87 

means  to  bring  these  parts  into  such  relation  to 
each  other  as  to  create  the  widest  range  of  open- 
ings and  sounds,  respectively,  by  passing  various 
streams  of  air  through  the  same. 

Looking  at  the  matter,  herein  before  men- 
tioned, from  a  mere  mechanical  or  physical 
standpoint,  * '  that  two  streams  of  air  may  pass 
each  other  in  the  same  cliannel  without  inter- 
fering with  each  other,  provided  that  there  is 
a  material  difference  in  their  velocity,"  I  have 
mentioned  it  without  reserve,  although  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  it  is  a  discovery  of  no 
mean  importance.  It  has  already  been  estab- 
lished that  two  streams  of  the  electric  fluid  can 
pass  each  other  over  the  same  wire  without 
intei-fering  with  each  other;  and  so  can  two 
streams  of  air  through  the  same  oriiice,  as  illus- 
trated by  the  air  we  use  for  speech  and  by  the 
air  we  inhale  for  the  lungs.  This  may  lead  to 
the  constniction  of  a  new  order  of  wind  instru- 
ments, possessing  different  scales  of  sounds 
which  can  be  played  at  the  same  time,  or  it  may 
1k'  utilizcfl  ill  otluM-  directions. 


HOW  DO  WE  SPEAK  ? 


''  I  ^  HE  manner  in  v^hich  we  hreaihe  for  speech 
is  hy  raising  and  lowering  the  tongue. 

For  eacli  sound  we  utter  the  tongue  must  be 
once  raised  and  once  lowered,  at  least.  These 
movements  follow  each  other  in  regular  rotation, 
the  tongue  being  raised,  then  lowered,  then 
raised  again,  although  they  are  sometimes  of  so 
slight  a  nature  that  they  scarcely  can  be  per- 
ceived. They  never  cease  during  the  continua- 
tion of  speech ;  and  with  each  one  of  them  the 
air  IS  either  admitted  or  emitted. 

These  motions  of  the  tongue  are  accompanied 
by  corresponding  motions  of  the  lips,  which, 
while  we  are  speaking,  seem  to  be  in  a  constant 
quiver.  The  motions  of  the  lips  are  apparently 
without  regularity ;  though  the  same  as  the 
tongue's  they  in  reality  change  from  the  upper 
to  the  lower  with  never-failing  regularity.  The 
movement  is  now  of  the  lower  lip,  then  of  the 

upper,  and  again  of  the  lower,   etc.,  though  it 

(38) 


HOW  DO  WE  SPEAK  f  39 

is  not  often  of  the  same  period  of  time.  As  the 
tongue  is  raised,  there  is  a  movement  of  the 
lower  lip ;  as  it  is  lowered,  there  is  one  of  the 
upper  lip. 

These  movements  of  the  lips  <;orrespond  with 
the  movements  of  the  jaws,  which  again  super- 
induce those  of  the  tongue.  They  are  some- 
times short,  scarcely  showing  the  teeth;  some- 
times so  as  to  show  an  entire  row  of  teeth; 
either  the  upper  or  lower,  in  accordance  with 
the  requirements  of  the  sound  which  is  being 
uttered. 

J*ar  English  speech  the  tongue  is  lowered  for 
inspiration  j  it  is  raised  for  expiration. 

While  lowered,  the  air  streams  in  over  its 
surface;  while  raised,  it  streams  out  from  ?/7?- 
derneath  the  same,  sound  following  in  the  wake 
of  each  stream  of  air. 

For  German  speech  the  precise  reverse  action 
takes  place :  The  tongue  is  lowered  for  expira- 
tion;  it  is  raised  for  insjnration. 

This  fact,  that  the  opposite  action  obtains  fo^ 
German  speech  to  that  which  obtains  fur  Eng- 
lish s]>eech,  has  given  me  the  key  to  the  entii'e 


40 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


situation.  Had  tliey  been  corresponding,  I 
never  would  have  made  any  discovery.  It  was 
due  to  the  fact,  that  they  are  not  corresponding, 
that  it  was  so  difficult,  nay,  impossible  for  me 
to  produce  correct  English  sounds. 

This  remarkable  fact,  that  English  speech  is 
carried  on  by  a  process  of  inspirations  and  ex- 
pirations the  precise  reverse  of  that  which  fur- 
nishes the  vehicle  for  German  speech,  offers 
food  for  reflection  in  many  directions.  Such 
questions  will  arise  as.  Has  this  always  been  the 
manner  in  which  these  insular  people  have 
spoken  ?  If  not,  at  what  period  in  their  history 
was  this  change  brought  about  ?  And  what 
wrought  it  ?  As  all  the  nationalities  comprising 
the  British  empire  to-day  breathe  for  speech  in 
the  same  manner,  it  will  be  asked  if  it  was 
the  Celts,  liomans,  Anglo-Saxons,  or  Normans 
that  caused  it  ?  Some  one  of  these  peoples,  or 
some  one  previous  to  these,  must  have  exercised 
so  powerful  and  far-reaching  an  influence  as  to 
compel  future  generations  of  various  nationalities 
to  change  their  current  of  speech ;  and,  in  so 
doing,  create  one  homogeneous  language. 


HOW  DO  WE  SPEAK? 


41 


What  other  2)eople  besides  the  English  speak 
in  this  manner  ?  Which  is  the  most  natural  and 
easiest  way  of  breathing,  the  German  or  the 
English  way  ? 

Germans  exhale  their  speech,  Anglicans  in- 
hale theirs.  German  speech  comes  direct  from 
the  throat,  while  English  speech  pursues  an  in- 
direct course.  After  being  inhaled  over  the 
surface  of  the  tongue,  it  is  exhaled  from  under- 
neath the  same.  In  so  doing,  its  main  sound, 
as  it  does  for  all  languages,  takes  the  same 
direction  which  the  expired  air  takes. 

Every  sound  we  hear  being  in  reality  com- 
posed of  at  least  tw^o  sounds,  the  first  part  of 
any  one  sound,  if  it  is  an  Anglican  who  utters 
it,  follows  the  air  inspired  for  the  same,  and  is 
hoard  by  reverberation  outwardly.  The  second 
j)art,  its  main  sound,  is  expired,  and  follows  in 
the  wake  of  the  air  which  makes  its  exit  from 
underneath  the  tongue. 

Witli  German  speech  precisely  the  reverse 
action  takes  place.  The  air  is  inhaled  beneath 
the  slightly  raised  tongue;  it  is  exhaled  from 
the  throat  over  tlic  t<>nirue. 


42  VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

All  studies  connected  witli  the  voice,  and  all 
teaching  in  regard  to  the  correct  use  of  tlie 
same,  have  been  at  all  times  exclusively  in  con- 
nection with  the  expired  breath.  It  is  of  greater 
importance,  however,  to  know  how  to  inspire 
correctly  than  to  know  how  to  expire  correctly. 
Correct  expiration  must,  of  necessity,  follow 
correct  inspiration,  while  the  reverse  is  by  no 
means  necessarily  the  case. 


^ 


%^ 


THE  DUAL  NATURE  OF  THE 
VOICE. 


nr^HE  voice  has  always  been  spoken  of  as  a 
unit,  a  stream  of  sounds,  and  it  is  quite 
possible  that  no  one  has  ever  thought  that  it 
might  not  be  a  unit,  a  thing  by  itself,  but  a 
composite.     Yet  •such  in  reality  it  is. 

There  are  two  voices,  separate  and  distinct, 
which  in  speaking  or  singing  blend  into  one  and 
seemingly  are  one.  I  call  them  by  different 
names,  each  name  being  characteristic  of  some 
especial  quality ;  and  I  shall  use  any  of  these 
expressions  as  occasion  may  seem  to  require. 
They  are : 

The  interior  and  the  exterior. 

The  upper  and  the  lower. 

The  first  and  the  second  (in  succession), 

Tlie  ingoing  and  the  outgoing. 

The  inhaled  and  the  exhaled, 

The  initial  and  the  final, 

The  rising  and  the  falling, 
(43) 


44 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


The  advancing  and  the  retiring. 

The  two  voices  are  so  distinctly  different  that 
they  forever  follow  their  own  separate  chan- 
nels. The  one  is  forever  flowing  from  within 
outwardly ;  the  other,  from  without  inwardly ; 
the  channel  of  the  one  being  over  and  above 
the  tongue,  that  of  the  other  under  and  be- 
neath the  same.  This  latter,  w^hose  sound  for 
English  speech  goes  out  from  under  the  tongue, 
and  for  German  speech  goes  in  underneath  the 
same,  has  not  before  been  noticed  by  anyone. 

"While  speaking,  the  voice  is  ever  moving  in 
a  circle ;  the  English  rising  voice  coming  out 
from  beneath  the  tongue,  and  receding  back 
over  and  above  the  same ;  '  the  German  rising 
voice  coming  out  from  above  the  tongue,  and 
receding  back  underneath  the  same.  The  two 
streams  follow  each  other  in  such  rapid  suc- 
cession that  they  appear  as  a  unit.  The  one 
is  the  complement  of  the  other,  and  they  fit 
into  each  other  so  closely  as  to  appear  as  one. 

Every  voice  we  hear,  from  murmuring  to 
singing,  from  moaning  to  laughing,  from  the 
first  cry  of  the  new  born  to  the  last  word  spoken 


THE  DUAL  NATURE  OF  THE  VOICE.        45 

by  the  dying,  follows  this  imnuitable  law.  But 
it  is  not  man's  law  alone.  It  is  the  law  of 
nature,  from  the  singing  of  the  bird  to  the 
roaring  of  the  lion,  from  the  humn:ing  of  the 
insect  to  the  neighing  of  the  liorse,  and  the 
barking  of  the  dog.  There  is  always  the  upper 
and  the  lower,  the  rising  and  the  falling  voice, 
following  each  other  and  blending  into  one. 

Does  it  not  always  seem  strange  that  from  one 
and  the  same  instrument  sounds  should  emerge 
so  distinctly  different  in  theh*  character,  and  so 
far  apart  in  the  musical  scale,  yet  so  closely  fol- 
lowing upon  and  blending  into  one  another,  each 
sound,  at  the  same  time,  standing  distinctly  by 
itself  ?  All  this  is  executed  in  so  diminutive  a 
space,  and  by  artists  who  never  had  any  in- 
struction in  the  use  of  their  instrument! 

Besides  the  wonder  of  the  production  of  the 
sounds,  there  is  the  wonder  of  their  clearness 
and  distinctness.  How  is  it  that  the  vibration 
of  the  previous  sound  does  not  mingle  with 
that  of  the  one  following  on  the  sounding-board 
of  the  oral  cavity  ?  I  can  throw  some  light  on 
this  subject,  and  shall  do  so  later  on. 


46 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


The  musical  rhythm  of  tlie  language,  its  rise 
and  fall,  and  ever  changing  modulation,  are  ex- 
plained by  the  two  voices. 

It  appears  to  me  that  the  manner  in  which 
birds  sing,  English  j^eople  speak,  judging  by 
the  swelling  of  their  throats,  the  movements  of 
their  tongue,  and  the  perfect  ease  with  which 
they  produce  their  song.  The  English  voice 
appears  to  be  confined  to  the  head,  and  does  not 
seem  to  come  from  lower  depths  as  the  German 
voice  does.  Hence  the  purity  of  English  sounds ; 
while  German  sounds,  coming  from  lower 
depths,  lack  this  purity  to  a  remarkable  degree, 
and  are  accompanied  by  noises,  attributed  by 
Germans,  both  as  regards  the  consonant  as  well 
as  the  vowel  sounds,  to  some  imperfection  in  the 
construction  of  the  oral  cavity  as  an  instrument 
to  permit  the  air  to  pass  through  freely.  These 
places,  against  which,  they  say,  the  air  in  its 
passage  strikes,  are  supposed  to  be  productive  of 
sounds  independent  of  their  proper  musical 
sounds,    and    are,    therefore,    properly    termed 


noises. 


Foreigners  speaking  English  carry  these  noises 


THE  DUAL  NATURE  OF  THE  VOICE.        47 

with  tlieiu  into  their  pronunciation  of  the  Eng- 
lish language ;  and  it  is  this  more  than  anything 
else  which  gives  to  their  speech  a  ' '  foreign  ' ' 
sound,  more  especially  an  '' offensive"  foreign 
sound.  The  assumption,  that  the  construction 
of  the  oral  cavity  is  not  perfect  for  the  eniission 
of  pure  German  sounds,  however,  is  not  correct. 
The  obstacle  they  encounter  is  the  German 
tongue,  which  does  not  move  ' '  out  of  the  way ' ' 
of  the  sounds,  and  hinders  them  in  their  free 
eniission,  causing  the  noises  spoken  of.  It  is  less 
active  than  the  English  tongue,  which  performs 
any  number  of  gymnastic  exercises  to  assist  the 
sound  in  coming  forth  clear  and  unobstructed. 
The  movements  of  the  tongue  for  German 
speech,  though  apparently  slower,  produce  sound 
faster  than  those  made  by  the  English  tongue, 
as  they  are  of  a  slighter  nature,  and  can,  there- 
fore, be  carried  out  much  cpiicker.  Germans, 
consequently,  s])eak  faster  than  Anglicans  do. 


THE    NEW    VOCAL    CORD. 


A  FTER  many  years  groping  in  the  dark, 
getting  but  the  faint  glimmer  of  a  light 
here  and  there,  the  first  real  illumination  came 
to  me  while  I  was  at  Chicago  during  the  prog- 
ress of  the  World's  Fair.  It  came  to  me  as  a 
revelation,  imparting  to  me  the  knowledge  of  a 
second  voice. 

After  having,  uj^on  continued,  careful  inves- 
tigation, become  convinced  of  the  correctness  of 
my  observation  of  the  existence  of  this  second 
voice,  and  of  its  location  as  emanating  from 
beneath  the  tongue,  the  question  constantly 
arose  :  By  what  means  is  this  second,  or  lower, 
voice  j)roduced  ?  What  did  nature  mean  by 
giving  to  it  such  a  circuitous  route  ?  How  can 
its  sounds  find  their  way  through  this  conduit, 
originating,  as  they  do,  in  the  vocal  cords  of  the 
larynx,  and  yet  come  to  the  surface  clear  and 
undefiled  ? 

Here   was   a   puzzle   which,   for  want   of   a 

(48) 


THE  NEW  VOCAL  CORD.  49 

proper  explanation,  threatened  to  set  at  nouglit 
with  others,  at  least,  all  that  had  with  me  be- 
come positive  and  undoubted  facts. 

The  solution  to  this  mystery  came  to  me  while 
I  was  traveling.  For  the  purpose  of  guarding 
against  all  possible  personal  contingencies,  and  a 
consequent  loss  of  what  had  been  intrusted  to 
me,  I  sent  an  account  of  my  discovery  home  in 
a  letter,  which  is  now  before  me.  I  prefer  to 
give  an  account  of  this  discovery  in  the  precise 
words  as  then  transmitted.  This  letter  was  dated 
at  Louisville,  Ky.,  October  13,  1893,  and  the 
following  is  an  extract  from  the  same : 

* '  I  scarcely  think  that  I  overrate  the  im- 
portance of  my  discovery,  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  our  speech  is  our  most  comprehen- 
sive gift;  and  that  no  discovery,  heretofore 
made,  of  the  nature  of  any  of  our  faculties 
comes  within  the  scope  of  our  will  to  control  as 
speech  does. 

''  While  still  abed  on  the  morning  of  Tuesday 
last,  at  the  Southern  Hotel,  St.  Louis,  my 
thoughts,  as  they  have  so  often  done  of  late, 
reverted  back  to  this  theme.  Wliile  I  was  con- 
vinced that  the  sounds  of  the  rising  voice,  in 
English  speech,  tend  from  below  the  tongue 
outward,  1  could  not  fathom  the  wisdom  wliich 


^ 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


made  the  outgoing  voice  pursue  so  tortuous  a 
channel ;  the  air  coming  from  the  tliroat,  thus 
forcing  its  way  around  the  sides  of  the  tongue 
and  beneath  it  toward  the  teeth,  while  the 
tongue's  tip  is  uplifted.  Still  less  could  I 
understand  how  clear,  unmuffled'  sounds  can 
thus  be  produced,  the  vocal  cords  being  hidden 
behind  so  many  obstructions ;  until  it  suddenly 
dawned  on  me  that  that  very  peculiar,   lip-like 


formation   in   the  low^er 


jaw. 


close  to  the  front 


part  of  the  root  of  the  tongue,  was  another 
vocal  cord — the  vocal  cord,  to  the  outgoing 
voice,  for  English  speech. 

"Watch  it,  and  see  how  it  trembles  and 
quivers  with  life  and  emotion  while  you  speak ; 
how  it  is  eloquent  witli  feeling.  Since  I  have 
discovered  its  use,  it  has  become  painful  to  me 
to  look  at  it,  so  expressive  is  it  of  our  soul-life. 
A  synopsis  of  our  entire  being,  almost,  seems 
to  be  concentrated  there. 

' '  Mystery  of  mysteries,  that  that  wlii^li  has 
been  exposed  to  view  at  all  times,  which  has  been 
with  the  notes  of  speech  and  song 
and 


sounding 

forever, 

never 


IS 


thus 


sounding  now 


should  have 


been  understood,  nor  even  been  noticed, 
by  anyone. 

For  English  speech  it  is  tlie  main  instrument 
of  sound,  while  for  German  speech  the  vocal 
cords  hidden  w^ithin  tlie  inner  recesses  of  the 
throat  are  the  ones  giving  life  to  their  most 
important  sounds. 

"  In  view  of  those  developments,  is  it  to  be 
wondered  at  that  German  speech   sliould  appear 


THE  NEW  VOCAL  CORD.  51 

{IS  coining  full  from  the  throat,  while  English 
speech  appears  to  he  coming  from  the  head?  The 
head  of  a  German,  while  speaking,  is  full  of  action, 
as  if  assisting  the  sounds  to  come  forward.  The 
head  of  an  Anglican  is  iirmly  set  on  his  shoul- 
ders, with  the  sound  simply  streaming  out,  and 
without  any  sign  of  assistance ;  hence,  gesticu- 
lation,^ vivacity  of  the  muscles  of  the  face,  often 
assisted  by  the  hands  and  arms  even,  of  the 
speaker,  in  the  former  case,  and  stolidity,  dig- 
nity, and  reserve  in  the  actions  of  the  latter. 

"  The  existence  of  the  lower  voice  reveals  the 
fact  that  there  is  a  circular  movement  of  aii-  for 
the  production  of  speech.  With  Anglicans,  the 
air  streams  into  the  mouth,  over  the  tongue, 
and  thence  into  the  larynx  with  the  falling 
voice,  and  streams  out  again  from  beneath  the 
tongue  with  the  rising  voice.  With  Germans, 
the  same  proceeding  takes  place  in  a  reverse 
order. ' ' 

These  are  tlie  main  contents  of  my  Louisville 
letter. 

To  these  remarks  I  must  add  that,  while  I 
attributed  to  the  lip-like  formation  in  the  lower 
jaw  the  entire  production  of  the  lower  voice, 
I  have  since  ascertained  that  it  is  but  a  part  of 
the  instmment ;  its  other  part  being  the  frenu- 
lum, the  cord  which  connects  the  tongue  witli 
the  lower  jaw,  which  is  extended  or  contracted, 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


in  conformity  with  the  movements  of  the 
tongue,  and  the  sounds  to  be  emitted.  It 
forms  the  exact  centre  of  the  mouth,  and  of 
the  lip-like  formation  beneath  the  tongue, 
which  it  traverses  and  divides  into  two  equal 
parts. 

The  air  coming  from  botli  sides  around  the 
root  of  the  tongue,  strikes  against  the  sides  of 
the  fraenulum,  when  extended;  or  against  its 
ridge,  when  relaxed;  and  coming  together  in 
front  of  it  produces  sound.  In  conformity  with 
the  string  being  fully  spanned,  or  it  being  in 
a  greater  or  minor  state  of  relaxation,  the  air, 
in  striking  it,  will  give  forth  various  sounds. 

All  changes  to  which  the  inner  lip  is  sub- 
jected the  outer  lip  is  subjected  to,  likewise. 
It  assumes  the  same  shapes  and  positions.  It 
is  now  raised,  then  depressed;  it  moves  for- 
ward, then  backward.  At  times  it  is  full  and 
round,  replete  with  blood  and  life;  at  others, 
it  is  contracted,  and  shows  a  slirunken,  and 
pointed  or  ragged  outline.  The  former  usually 
obtains  during  inspiration,  the  latter  during  ex- 
piration.    Together    witli    tlie    tongue,     whose 


THE  NEW  VOCAL  CORD.  SS 

lower  front  or  tip  usually  rests  upon  it,  some- 
times concealing  it  altogether,  tlien  retiring, 
showing  it  in  part,  and  retiring  still  further, 
showing  it  completely,  and  the  space  of  the 
lower  jaw  w^liich  it  encloses,  it  presents  to  all 
appearances  another  month  within  our  mouth. 
This  impression  is  heightened  when  the  tongue 
rests  upon  the  inner  lip,  thereby  presenting  a 
similar  appearance  to  the  upper  lip  resting  upon 
the  lower. 

Owing  to  this  striking  similarity,  and  not 
knowing  by  what  name  it  is  known  in  the  phys- 
iological or  medical  world,  if,  indeed,  it  has  a 
name,  I  call  it  the  ''replica,"  being  almost  a 
repetition,  "by  the  hand  of  the  same  master," 
of  the  mouth  itself. 

Not  knowing,  either,  what  the  "inner  lip," 
or  "new"  vocal  cord,  may  be  called,  I  have 
named  it  the  '  *  vocal  lip. ' ' 

As  the  replica,  then,  is  apt  to  adopt  the  cor- 
rect shape  for  the  proper  production  of  sounds, 
it  will  be  well  to  watch  our  lips  to  see  that 
they  assume  the  same  shape.  Only  when  they 
do  will  a  sound   be  emitted  in  its  entire  purity ; 


54 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


it  being  of  prime  necessity  for  .the  outer  rim  of 
the  orifice  of  the  mouth  to  liave  tlie  correct 
shape,  if  it  is  to  produce  correct  sounds.  The 
tongue,  wliile  it  is  resting  upon  or  with  its  tip 
moving  along  the  rim  of  the  vocal  lip,  acts  in  a 
somewhat  similar  manner  to  that  in  which  our 
upper  lip  acts  in  relation  to  our  lower  lip.  That 
is,  it  creates  openings  of  various  shapes  and 
sizes.  Through  these  openings  the  air  is  forced, 
producing  various  sounds. 

At  other  times,  when  the  tip  of  the  tongue 
rests,  within  the  replica,  pressing  with  its  point 
hard  down  upon  its  bottom,  upon  being  sud- 
denly raised  it  creates  an  explosion  as  for  k, 
or,  by  a  weaker  pressure,  as  for  g.  Again,  by 
rolling  along  its  surface,  it  produces  the  sound 
of  r,  etc. ,  etc. 

The  vocal  lip  moves  backward  for  expired 
sounds,  while  the  tongue's  tip  is  raised;  it 
moves  forward  for  inspired  sounds,  while  the 
tongue's  tip  rests  upon  it.  It  takes  the  opposite 
directi(m  to  that  which  the  tip  of  the  tongue 
takes,  the  latter  moving  backward  for  inspired 
and  forward  for  expired  sounds. 


THE  NEW  VOCAL  CORD. 


55 


Tlicse  are  some  of  the  outlines  connected 
with  the  replica  and  the  vocal  lip.  It  is  quite 
a  study,  and  time  must  be  had  for  its  full  de- 
velopment. 

What  inference  may  be  drawn  from  a  study 
of  the  replica  and  the  vocal  lip  as  regards  the 
sounds  produced  by  the  vocal  cord  of  the 
larynx,  I  can  only  surmise.  I  presume,  how- 
ever, that  we  shall  now  be  able  to  arrive  at  a 
better  estimate  of  its  true  nature. 

It  appears  to  me  as  if  the  new  school  which 
is  likely  to  arise  from  these  investigations  will 
have  to  base  its  technical  teaching  largely  upon 
a  study  of  the  aspect  of  the  replica  and  the 
vocal  li})  in  a  general,  and  the  changes  to  which 
they  are  subjected  in  a  special,  sense. 

It  is  not  difficult  for  anyone  to  produce  a 
pure  sound  when  one  makes  a  special  effort  to 
do  so,  but  to  produce  pure  sounds  in  connection 
with  other  sounds,  and  to  do  so  habitually,  must 
be  the  aim  of  the  scholar  and  of  the  teacher. 
To  accom])lish  this,  the  shape  assumed  by  the 
lips,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  teeth  ap- 
proach each  other,  must  be  closely  watched.   As 


56 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


tliey  are  but  a  copy  of  the  shape  of  the  replica 
and  the  vocal  lij),  anyone  can  become  his  own 
teacher. 

This  will  be  easy  in  comparison  with  many  of 
the  systems  now  in  vogue,  explaining  the  pro- 
duction of  sounds ;  most  of  them  being  too  elab- 
orate in  their  description,  and  too  difficult  of 
comprehension,  for  the  ordinary  scholar. 

In  contemplating  the  lower  jaw  as  an  instru- 
ment to  jDroduce  sound,  in  comparison  with  the 
upper,  or  with  the  roof  of  the  mouth,  we  can 
perceive  why  it  is  that  the  English  tongue  is 
capable  of  producing  such  a  vastly  greater 
variety  of  sounds  than  the  German.  It  is  a 
small  but  wonderfully  constructed  instrument, 
with  its  numerous  knots,  ligaments,  elevations 
and  depressions.  Its  ridges  and  indentures  are 
subject  to  continuous  changes,  accommodating 
themselves  to  such  shapes  as  are  required  of 
them  to  produce  different  sounds. 

The  upper  jaw  with  its  plainly  vaulted  roof, 
on  the  other  hand,  does  not  j^ossess  these  quali- 
fications, and  is  only  fitted  for  the  reproduction 
of    those    elementary  sounds    which  have  their 


THE  NEW  VOCAL  CORD.  OT 

origin  in  the  vocal  cord  of  the  larynx.  Hence, 
while  Oernian  vowels  have  but  one  distinct 
sound,  there  are  numerous  variations  for  Eng- 
lish vowel  sounds. 

If  the  roof  of  the  mouth,  however,  is  looked 
upon  as  the  sounding-l)oard  for  all  sounds, 
which  in  all  likelihood  it  is,  the  sounds  pro- 
duced by  the  "new"  vocal  cord,  as  well  as 
those  of  the  ''old,"  are  deflected  from  the 
same.  It  will  be  more  nearly  correct,  therefore, 
to  assume  that  the  ''  new  "  vocal  cord  produces 
those  parts  of  sounds  which  are  so  peculiarly 
characteristic  of  the  English  tongue,  while  the 
"  old "  produces  those  also  known  to  other 
tongues ;  the  two  blending  into  each  other  for 
all  the  sounds  of  the  English  tongue. 

Steamships,  nowadays,  often  carry  a  double 
engine,  both  engines  being  used  while  the  ship 
is  speeding  along.  The  main  object  for  having 
two,  however,  is  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
the  ship  to  continue  on  its  voyage,  in  case  one 
should  be  disabled ;  each  engine  being  the  pro- 
peller of  a  separate  nidder. 

Nature  has  made  the  same  provision  for  our 


58 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


seeing,  hearing,  smelling,  breathing,  thinking 
apparatus,  etc.  We  likewise  have  two  arms,  two 
hands,  two  legs,  etc. ;  always  one  in  reserve,  in 
case  the  other  should  be  disabled.  And  so  we 
have  two  voices  for  speaking. 

We  do  not  use  our  two  voices,  however,  just 
at  one  and  the  same  time,  but  in  succession. 
The  upper,  always  first ;  the  lower,  following 
close  upon  it ;  as  we  must  inspire  before  we  can 
expire.  Tliey  follow  so  close  one  upon  the 
other  as  to  appear  as  one.  This  is  for  the  Eng- 
lish voice,  of  course ;  the  order  for  the  German 
voice  being  the  reverse. 

Do  we  hear,  see,  smell,  breathe,  etc. ,  also  in 
this  fashion,  one  ear,  eye,  lung,  etc.,  always 
first,  and  the  other  following  closely  upon  it  ? 

There  is  no  difiiculty  hearing  the  two  voices. 
Any  English  vowel  sound,  slowly  spoken,  will 
clearly  reveal  them.  The  personal  pronoun 
"  I, "  for  instance,  composed  of  the  two  sounds 
a  and  e — a  as  in  "  father  "  and  ^  as  in  '^  is  " — 
will  bring  them  out  very  clearly.  The  first 
part  of  this  sound,  appears  hollow,  being  spoken 


THE  NEW  VOCAL  CORD,  69 

by  the  falling  voice,  while  its  last  part  is  ring- 
ing, being  spoken  by  the  rising  voice. 

There  is  not  only  a  difference  in  the  sound, 
but  also  in  the  inflection  between  the  first  and 
the  second  part  of  this  sound ;  so  much  so,  that 
they  might  appear  to  be  spoken  by  two  different 
persons  in  quick  succession.  The  German  sound 
"Ei"  ("egg")  shows  precisely  the  reverse 
order.     It  is  first  loud  and  then  soft. 

The  same  difference  obtains  with  the  rest  of 
the  vowels.  It  is  very  marked  in  the  first 
letter  of  the  alphabet,  when  standing  by  itself. 
Its  first  part  is  a  as  in  ' '  have, ' '  its  second  more 
of  an  ^,  as  in  "  is. ' '  The  a  being  spoken  by 
the  upper,  has  a  subdued  sound ;  while  the  <?, 
being  spoken  by  the  lower  voice,  sounds  clear. 
O  sounds  like  o-ah^  etc. 


-m.^- 


EMPHASIS. 


A   N  American   gentleman  who  had  been  to 
"*•  Berlin  spoke  to  me  about  the  enthusiasm 

prevailing  there  for  the  Emperor  (the  old  Em- 
peror). At  the  same  time,  said  he,  ' '  they  had 
so  nmch  respect  for  the  old  gentleman  that, 
even  while  cheering  him,  they  did  not  allow 
their  voices  to  come  out  full,  as  ours  do  when 
we  cry  '  hurrah ; '  but  theirs  had  a  hollow 
sound,  as  if  they  had  got  drowned  before  they 
got  fairly  through  with  their  cheering. ' '  While 
his  observation,  as  such,  was  doubtless  correct, 
the  cause  he  attributed  to  it,  of  course,  was  not 
correct.  In  crying  ' '  hurrah, ' '  the  last  part  of 
the  vowel  a,  in  German,  is  spoken  with  the 
retiring  voice,  and,  therefore,  sounds  hollow; 
while  the  same  sound,  in  English,  is  pronounced 
by  the  advancing  voice,  and  when  prolonged, 
as  it  is  in  crying  "hurrah,"  it  sounds  loud  and 
ringing. 

This  also  makes  the  English  voice  preeminently 

(60) 


EMPHASIS. 


61 


the  voice  of  command.  The  last  consonant  or 
consonants  are  generally  dropped,  and  the  last 
vowel  comes  out  clear  and  ringing.  It  sounds 
like  a  tnimpet-blast,  first  hollow  and  then  loud, 
being  produced  in  a  similar  maimer.  On  the 
other  hand,  and  for  the  opposite  reason,  the 
German  voice  is  more  soulful,  being  better  mod- 
ulated ;  the  fall  of  the  voice  following  its  rise, 
instead  of  the  rise  its  fall,  as  in  English.  In  a 
German  serenade,  or  lullaby,  the  sound  is  sub- 
dued, gradually  and  slowly  dying  out  with  the 
falling  voice.  The  same,  when  attempted  by 
English  voices,  can  never  be  carried  out  with 
the  same  effect. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  it  does  not  appear  to 
me'  possible  for  foreign  singing-masters  to  teach 
singing  to  American  or  English  pupils  success- 
fully; the  voice  of  the  teacher  differing  from 
that  of  his  pupil  by  natural  production,  their 
voices  take  a  different  direction,  and  can  never 
come  together  on  the  same  plane.  Hence,  the 
constant  complaints  of  fine  voices  having  been 
ruined  by  the  method  of  such  and  such  a  master. 
His  method  has  proven  all  right  with  his  Italian 


62  VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

scholars,  when  teaching  them  singing  at  home ; 
or  with  his  German  scliolars,  when  the  teacher 
is  a  German.  What,  then,  is  the  trouble  -with 
these  "English"  pupils?  Neither  teacher  .nor 
scholars  ever  knew,  and  thej  have  been  at  a  loss 
for  an  explanation. 


.— ^^— 


TRACHEA  AND  CESOPHAGUS. 


A  FTER  giving  an  account  of  the  nature  of 
the  two  voices,  or  of  our  dual  voice  as 
it  miglit  more  properly  l)e  termed,  and  having 
also  previously  described  tlie  process  of  breath- 
ing for  speech  in  a  general  sense,  I  can  now 
proceed  to  explain  liow  we  breathe  for  the  same 
in  a  specific  sense. 

For  English  speech  we  inspire  tlirough  tlie 
windpipe,  creating  the  falHng  voice,  and  ex- 
])ire  througli  the  gullet,  creating  the  rising 
voice ;  for  German  speech  this  order  is  reversed. 

This  again  establishes  the  rotation  of  the  air, 
or  sound,  the  same  as  it  obtains  in  other  re- 
spects regarding  the  voice. 

All  of  us  are  in  the  habit  of  speaking  at 
meals.  While  we  are  eating,  might  not  the 
epiglottis  be  nun'n  likely  to  be  able  to  do  its 
duty  in  covering  up  the  windpipe,  during  the 
time  that  we  either  expire  or  inspire,  than  it 
could  if  it  were  ol)liged   to  do  so  during  both 

iiis])i?-ati()]i    ;m<]   (>\])ir;itioii  ?     We   would   come 

((;:5) 


64  VOCAL  UTTERANCE, 

far  more  frequently,  near  choking  if  both 
streams  of  air  had  to  pass  through  the  trachea. 
In  a  sudden  coughing  lit,  or  while  sneezing, 
when  we  are  in  the  act  of  eating,  food  is  ex- 
pelled. Besides,  what  is  it  that  causes  one's 
breath  to  be  "tainted,"  when  the  stomach  is 
out  of  order  ?  If  it  came  from  the  lungs,  how 
could  the  stomach  affect  it  ? 

It  will  be  admitted  that  breathing  for  our 
lungs  never  stops,  that  it  goes  on  forever  in 
its  regular  method,  while  life  lasts.  Such 
sudden  spasms  as  sneezing,  gaping,  coughing, 
laughing, — all  would  seriously  interfere  with 
the  act  of  breathing  for  our  lungs,  if  entirely 
carried  on  through  the  trachea.  This  is  obviated 
by  one  part  originating  in  the  channel  of  the 
gullet ;  and  the  other,  in  that  of  the  windpipe 
the  same  as  other  regular  sounds  do.  A  sudden 
inspiration  through  the  windpipe  always  pre- 
cedes these  acts;  while  the  act  itself,  by  an 
equally  sudden  expiration,  is  carried  on  through 
the  gullet.  This  relieves  the  windpipe  to  a 
great  extent,   and  permits  the  act  of  breathing 


TRACHEA  AND  CESOPHAOUS.  65 

to  be  prosecuted  without  serious  interference  by 
these  outbursts. 

My.  iiiial  conviction,  therefore,  is,  as  already 
stated,  that  for  English  speecli  we  inliale  through 
the  trachea,  and  exhale  through  the  oesophagus, 
from  which  the  air  passes  directly  beneath  the 
tongue  into  the  lower  jaw. 

For  German  speech  we  inhale  through  the 
gullet,  the  air  passing  in  underneath  the  tongue, 
and  exhale  through  the  windpipe.  In  this  man- 
ner, for  English  speech,  the  vocal  cords  are 
passed  first  inwardly,  and  the  vocal  "lip,'' 
last,  outwardly.  While  for  German  speecli  the 
vocal  lip  is  passed  first,  and  tlie  vocal  cord  last. 
This  fully  explains  the  phenomena  of  the  voice, 
and  the  tendency  of  the  sound  in  both  instances. 


•'IKwIII^ 


THE     CIRCULATION     OF     SOUND- 
CIRCLES. 


\'X  T'E  say,  our  tongue  slips  up  and  down, 
backward  and  forward.  In  saying  so, 
we  state  that  which  seetns  to  be  the  case,  and, 
in  a  measure,  really  is  the  case.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  it  is  stating"  but  a  part  of  the  tongue's 
movements.  To  fully  state  what  the  tongue 
does  will  be  giving  an  account  of  one  of  the 
most  interesting  observations  I  have  made. 

The  tongue  does  not  move  in  the  oral  cavity 
by  slipping  up  or  down,  backward  or  forward ; 
but  its  movements  are  in  the  shape  of  circles, 
and  it  never  moves  in  any  other  way.  These 
circles  are  described  by  the  tongue's  tip.  They 
are  not  complete  circles,  however,  but  segments 
of  circles  only.  The  tip  of  the  tongue,  in  de- 
scribing then),  goes  as  far  as  it  is  able  to  go,  the 
remainiiig  part  of  the  circle  for  its  completion 
being  left  to  the  imagination. 

All    movements,     in    fact,     connected    with 

speech  are  circular   in    their    nature.      The  air 
(66) 


THE  CIRCULATION  OF  SOUND— CIRCLES.   67 

for  speech  moves  in  circles,  the  sound  .which  it 
prtxhices  lias  the  Siinie  tendency;  and  so  have 
the  movements  of  the  tongue,  in  causing  the 
admission  and  emission  of  air,  and  iii  connecting 
the  two  voices. 

The  tongue,  in  an  Englisli  mouth,  makes  so 
many  movements,  and  carries  them  out  with 
such  velocity,  that  the  oral  cavity,  while  we  are 
speaking,  seems  to  be  completely  tilled  with  the 
same.  In  view  of  this  fact,  it  had  long  been  a 
riddle  to  me  to  know  how  English  sounds  could 
find  their  way  through  this  maze  of  movements 
of  the  tongue,  and  come  to  the  surface  with  so 
nmch  distinctness  and  clearness.  The  move- 
ments  of  the  tongue  in  circles  will  explaiu  it; 
these  movements  being  made  for  the  very  pur- 
pose of  assisting  sounds  to  come  out  clearly. 

I3efore  any  sound  is  uttered,  the  air  is  drawn 
into  the  oral  cavity  by  a  previous  expiration, 
causing  a  vacuum.  The  air,  thereby  attracted, 
is  drawn  into  this  vacuum  by  a  swinging  mo- 
tion, and  strikes  the  tongue  obliquely  at  its  tip. 
We  can  distinctly  feel  this.  There  is  a  draught  of 
air  passing  over  the  tip  of  the  tongue  with  every 


68 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


inspired  sound,  wliicli  has  a  cooling  effect,  in 
drying  up  its  moisture.  For  every  German  in- 
spired sound  we  can  feel  the  same  effect,  heneath 
the  tongue.  The  air  then  follows  along  the  sur- 
face of  the  tongue  into  the  larynx.  To  aid  the 
air  in  being  thus  absorbed,  the  tongue's  tip 
points  downward,  while  the  upper  jaw  and  teeth 
and  the  upper  lij)  are  raised.  Then  follows  the 
second  movement  for  expiration,  by  the  raising 
of  the  tongue  with  its  tip  pointing  uj)w^ard.  In 
so  doing  the  air  and  the  sound  are  expired  from 
beneath  it,  while  the  lower  jaw  and  teeth  and 
the  low^er  lip  are  depressed. 

These  two  movements  are  repeated  once  more 
for  the  same  sound,  making  four  niovements  for 
each  sound,  or  six,  more  properly  sj^eaking,  as 
explained  further  on.  It  is  not  a  simple  lowering 
or  raising  of  the  tongue's  tip,  however.  After 
inspiration,  its  tip  is,  in  reality,  raised  to  the 
roof  of  the  mouth.  It  then  conies  down  with  a 
graceful  movement  inwardly,  describing  a  circle, 
until  its  tip  reaches  the  upper  row  of  teeth. 
Here  the  sound  is  emitted  through  an  opening 
formed  between  the  tongue's  lower  side  and  the 


THE  CIRCULATION  OF  SOUND— CIRCLES.    G9 

lower  row  of  tcetli.  It  now  moves  up  again  to 
the  roof  of  tlie  mouth,  from  wlience  it  comes 
down,  with  another  circular  movement,  out- 
wardly this  time,  until  it  reaches  the  lower  row 
of  teeth.  Here  inspiration  takes  place  through 
an  opening  formed  between  the  surface  of  the 
tongue  and  the  upj>er  row  of  teeth.  After  this, 
tliere  is  another  expiration  for  the  same  sound 

The  movement,  which  brings  the  tongue  for- 
ward for  expiration,  is  s}nonjmous  with  the 
slipping  forward  of  the  tongue;  the  second 
movement,  which  brings  it  down  for  inspira- 
tion, appears  to  us  to  be  simply  the  slipping 
back  of  the  tongue.  For  all  sounds  of  the  upper 
voice,  consequently,  the  tongue  slips  back,  while 
for  all  those  of  the  lower  it  slips  forward. 

The  fact  is,  nature  does  not  work  like  a  black- 
smith, but  by  gentle  movements,  graceful  curves, 
and  the  most  artistic  touches,  it  attains  its  re- 
sult*.  Yet,  withal,  it  moves  so  swiftly  that  we 
can  scarcely  follow  its  movements. 

Xor  does  nature  deal  in  solids,  but  rather  in 
cMinixmnds.  Where  we  imagine  tliere  is  one 
thing,  there  may  be  Inindreds.      Thus  we  hear  a 


70 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


sound,  and  say  it  is  such  and  such  a  note,  or  such 
and  such  a  letter.  Yet  there  are  many  sounds 
to  make  up  this  one  sound,  and  in  the  j^rocess  of 
its  production  more  subtle  factors  enter  then  we 
shAll  ever  gain  a  knowledge  of. 

The  tongue  performs  the  work  of  converting 
the  air  into  sound,  ,l)y  sending  it  in  different 
directions  in  the  oral  cavity.  It  fans  it,  sweeps 
it  togetlier,  so  as  to  mass  it  in  one  spot,  or  whips 
it  into  submission,  in  accordance  with  the  sounds 
to  be  produced.  In  doing  this,  it  makes  inces- 
sant motions,  apparently  of  an  indescribable  and 
wilful  nature.  In  reality  they  are  all  circular 
in  shape  and  move  in  the  graceful  manner  here- 
tofore described. 

An  English  tongue  hangs  loosely  in  the 
mouth,  as  loosely  almost  as  does  a  tongue  sus- 
pended in  a  bell.  It  is  ready  at  any  moment 
to  obey  the  command  of  its  bellringer,  the  mind. 
A  German  tongue,  on  the  other  hand,  rests  on 
the  floor  of  the  mouth,  and  touches  it  or  some 
portion  of  the  oral  cavity  even  during  the  forma- 
tion and  enunciation  of  the  vowel  sounds.  Tlie 
English    tongue,    in    so    doing,    is     completely 


THE  CIRCULATION  OF  SOUND— CIRCLES.   71 

withdrawn  from  any  contact  with  the  oral  cavity. 
This  touch  of  tlie  tongue  against  the  teetli,  or 
otlicr  ])arts  of  the  mouth,  is  the  cause  of  the 
noise  always  accompanying  German  vowel 
Sounds,  of  which  the  English  voice  is  absolutely 
free. 

During  the  act  of  speaking,  the  tongue's  tip, 
while  swinging  with  a  circular  motion,  now  up, 
then  down,  always  returns  to  the  soft-palate. 
Tliere  is  a  point  of  the  soft-palate  which  must 
1)0  touched  by  the  tongue's  tip  every  time  a  new 
sound  is  to  1)0  evoked,  so  as  to  stop  the  vibra- 
tion of  the  previous  sound,  on  this,  the  sounding- 
board  of  the  oral  cavity.  If  this  were  not  done, 
there  would  be  an  endless  intermingling  and 
confusion  of  sounds,  and  none  would  ever  be 
heard  to  stand  clearl}'  and  distinctly  by  them- 
selves. 

The  centre,  around  which  the  circles  revolve, 
is  the  opening  to  the  throat.  The  tongue's 
principal  aim,  in  swinging  up  and  down,  is  for 
the  purpose  of  giving  to  the  air  free  egress 
and  ingress  from  and  into  this  opening.  The 
swingings  of  the    tongue,    consequently,    mean 


72 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


breathings;  it  swings  np  for  expiration  and 
down  for  inspiration,  each  breathing  being  ac- 
companied by  a  sound.  In  swinging  down,  by 
an  outward  movement,  the  tip  of  the  tongue 
stops  below  the  lower  teeth  to  permit  the  air 
to  enter  above  it.  In  swinging  up,  by  an  inner 
motion,  it  stops  above  the  upper  teeth  to  let  the 
air  out  from  beneath  it. 

The  circles,  wliicli  the  tongue  describes,  as 
far  as  flieir  circumference  is  concerned,  are  de- 
termined by  the  sound  which  is  to  be  produced. 
It  is  larger  or  smaller  in  accordance  with  the 
force  which  it  is  necessary  to  employ  to  pro- 
duce such  sound. 

This  last  remark  does  not  have  reference, 
however,  to  the  stopping  of  the  previous  sound 
on  the  sounding-board  of  the  oral  cavity,  but  to 
a  second  tap  of  tlie  tip  of  the  tongue,  given  to 
this  sounding-board,  either  the  soft  or  the  hard- 
palate,  immediately  following  the  first  tap.  This 
tap  is  applied  to  various  parts  of  tlie  palate  for 
the  enunciation  of  the  different  consonant 
sounds.  Tlie  greater  the  power  the  sound  is  to 
have,  the  higher  up  must  be  the  touch,  and  the 


THE  CIRCULATION  OF  SOUND— CIRCLES.    73 

greater  must  be  the  force  with  which  it  is 
applied.  And  so  will  be  the  circle  larger  or 
smaller ;  and  it  w^ll  be  executed  with  greater  or 
less  force  and  rapidity,  in  accordance  with  the 
sound  which  is  to  be  evoked. 

This  greater  or  less  force  is  also  shared  in  by 
the  air,  wdiich  is  l)eing  inhaled  for  the  same 
sound.  The  higher  the  touch,  and  the  greater 
tlie  circle,  the  larger  will  be  the  opening 
thereby  created  in  the  cavity  of  the  mouth, 
and  in  the  same  relation  thereto  will  be  the  cur- 
rent of  air  absorbed  for  such  sound. 

In  likening  our  apparatus  to  produce  sound 
to  a  string-instrument,  I  have  compared  the 
air  or  nerve-channels,  through  which  or  along- 
side of  which  the  air-sparks  we  inhale  for  sjioech 
travel,  to  the  strings  of  this  instrument. 

In  touching  a  certain  spot  of  the  hard  or  soft- 
palate  with  the  tip  of  our  tongue,  with  the  in- 
tention of  producing  a  certain  sound,  especially 
a  consonant  sound,  we  open  this  cord,  whot^o 
sound-nerve  has  its  ending  here  for  this  sound. 

It  is  astonishing  with  what  certainty  the  tip 
of  the  tongue  touches  these  spots  from  which  it 


74 


VOCAL  UrrERANCE. 


expects  to  draw  tliese  sounds.  If  it  should  toucli 
tlie  wrong  spot  hy  ever  so  little,  the  cord  will 
not  respond,  and  the  sound  will  not  he  heard, 
or  we  may  hear  a  false  sound,  not  the  one  we 
expected  to  hear. 

How  the  cords  are  "  touched  "  for  the  vowel 
sounds,  I  cannot  imagine,  as  there  is  no  touch. 
They  are  simply  the  children  of  our  imagina- 
tion hecome  real,  they  are  the  product  of  our 
w^ll.  We  "  will "  a  certain  vowel  to  sound,  and 
the  vocal  cord  or  lip  opens  up  tlie  nerve-string 
with  which  it  is  connected.  The  cords  for  the 
vowel  sounds  all  centre  and  have  their  ending  iii 
the  vocalcord  and  lip,  and  their  sound  is  pro- 
longed, in  conformity  with  our  will,  or  our 
muscular  ability  to  breathe  for  it. 


DEFECTIVE  SPEECH. 


''T^IIE  circles  wliicli  the  tongue  describes 
^  are  the  proper  gauge  for  speecli.  For 
Englisli  speech  tliey  are  large,  and  English  to 
be  well  spoken  must,  therefore,  be  slowly 
spoken ;  much  slower,  at  least,  than  German 
is.  It  is  very  difficult  for  a  person  to  speak 
English  fast  and  yet  form  his  circles  to  perfec- 
tion, good  speech  being  synonyinous  with  a 
perfect  chain  of  circles. 

When  a  person  speaks  too  fast  for  melodious 
utterance,  we  should  say  that  his  circles  are  too 
small;  when  his  speech  is  shiggish,  that  they  are 
too  loose;  when  he  stutters,  that  his  circles  are 
broken ;  when  his  sj^ech  is  rough  and  unmannerly, 
that  they  are  out  of  shape  or  in  bad  shape;  when 
he  speaks  in  a  high  tone  of  voice,  that  his  circles 
are  raised  up  too  high,  locally ;  when  in  a  low 
tone,  that  they  incline  too  far  down  ;  when  he 
speaks  distinctly,  that  they  are  complete ;  when 
he  speaks  with  expression,  tliat  they  are  vigor- 
ous; when  he  s|Hiak8  melodiously,  that  they  are 
(75) 


76  VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

of  •  tlie  best  material ;  and  when  lie  speaks  with 
feeling,  that  they  are  elastic,  that  they  widen  and 
contract. 

/When  I  say  that  stnttering  is  synonymous 
with  the  circles  being  broken,  I  mean  that  there  is 
a  lack  of  continuity  in  speech.  This  is  caused  hj  the 
two  voices  not  following  close  upon  each  other, 
not  chiming  into  each  other.  The  upper  voice 
utters  a  sound,  but  the  lower  is  slow  in  resj)ond- 
ing.  The  tongue  fails  to  complete  its  circle  for 
it.  Or  the  tip  of  the  tongue  may  not  hit  the 
proper  place  in  tlie  roof  of  the  mouth  for  such 
sound,  and  thus  not  describe  the  correct  circle. 

The  circles  become  deranged,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, through  excitement  in  the  nervous  air- 
channels,  superinduced  by  a  latent  though 
ever  present  fear  of  breaking  down.  If  this 
fear  could  be  completely  allayed,  there  would 
not,  in  all  probability,  be  any  stuttering  that  could 
easily  not  be  cured.  As  the  circles  represent 
breathings,  by  endeavoring  to  breathe  correctly 
for  speech  this  nervous  excitement  will  be 
allayed,  and  the  circles  will  become  full  and 
equable. 


DEFECTIVE  SPEECH. 


rt 


Tliere  should  be  no  trouble  in  correcting  such 
faults,  provided  the  stutterer  can  be  made  to 
understand  what  he  is  required  to  do.  He  must 
begin  by  speaking  slowly  and  deliberately,  con- 
stantly watching  his  mode  of  breathing  and  his 
circles;  and  as  soon  as  he  breaks  down,  he  must 
repeat  the  sound  until  he  can  do  so  with  perfect 
ease. 

I  was  a  stutterer,  or,  at  least,  a  very  defec- 
tive speaker  of  the  English  language.  If  I  have 
succeeded,  by  certain  rules  strictly  applied  to 
my  speech,  in  curing  myself  of  these  defects,  is 
it  not  likely  that  the  same  rules  applied  to  the 
defective  speech  of  others  will  also  cure  them  of 
their  defects  ? 


EXTENSION    AND    CONTRACTION 
OF  THE  ORAL  CAVITY. 


I  ^HE  Englisli  tongue  liangs  loosely  in  the 
inoutli.  The  air  circulates  freely  around 
it.  Nature  has  made  its  house,  the  oral  cavity, 
a  certain  size,  but  the  speaker  increases  it  by 
now  raising  tlie  roof,  and  then  depressing  the 
cellar.  The  roof  is  raised  for  inspiration,  tlie 
cellar  is  depressed  for  expiration.  When  the 
tongue  is  properly  balanced,  between  the  air 
streaming  in  over  it,  and  coming  out  from  be- 
neath it,  the  sounds  of  speech  or  song  will 
flow  unrestrainedly  from  the  mouth,  where  the 
two  streams  meet. 

During  the  act  of  inspiration  nature  provides 

for  a  free  ingress  of  the  air  into  the  oral  cavity 

l)y  raising  the  upper  lip,  the  soft-palate  and  tlie 

uvula.      The    body  of   the  tongue  rests    in  the 

lower  jaw,  and  is  confined  within  the  bed  formed 

by  the   lower    teeth.      The    tongue's  tip  points 

downward,  and  its  surface,  within  its   confined 

position,  is  slightly  convex. 
(78) 


THE  ORAL  CAVITY. 


79 


All  this  is  clianged  iiii mediately  for  expira- 
tion. The  soft-palate  and  the  uvula  faH,  assum- 
ing their  natural  position,  so  does  the  upper 
lip ;  but  the  lower  cavity  now  asserts  its  rights. 
The  lower  lip  is  drawn  down,  the  chin  is  squared 
and  extended  downward  and  outward,  and  in  so 
doing  the  bottom  of  the  mouth  is  depressed. 
This  increases  the  size  of  the  lower  cavity  to  a 
considerable  extent. 

The  tongue's  tip  which  for  inspiration  had 
made  a  circular  movement  outwardly,  from  the 
roof  down,  and  was  then  confined  together  with 
its  body  within  the  bed  formed  by  the  lower 
row  of  teeth,  is  now  raised,  by  swinging  upward, 
immediately  to  come  down  ag-ain,  liowever,  first, 
\)\  an  inner  motion,  and  then  by  an  upper, 
until  it  reaches  the  upper  row  of  teeth.  During 
tliis  latter  motion  the  entire  bodv  of  tiie  tonsrue 
is  lifted  up,  its  sides  are  spread  out,  and  over- 
lap both  rows  of  teetli,  wdiile  its  surface  as- 
sumes a  slightly  raised  sliape.  It  looks,  to  all 
appearances,  like  a  mushroom  with  its  thickset 
root  and  spreading  roof.      The  latter  is  raised  up 


80  VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

bejond  the  opening  to  the  throat,  bringing  the 
same  completely  beneath  its  shelter. 

The  ligament  which  connects  the  body  of  the 
tongue  at  its  root  with  the  throat,  and  grows 
some  distance  down  the  throat,  is  lifted  up  to- 
gether with  the  body  of  the  tongue.  While  in 
this  position  it  is  narrowed  down  to  such  an  ex- 
tent as  to  leave  the  ojjening  to  the  throat  free 
and  uncovered  on  both  sides.  Through  these 
oj)enings  the  air  finds  its  way  out  beneath  the 
raised  sides  of  the  tongue. 

The  entire  lower  portion  of  the  mouth  being 
depressed  and  extended,  the  air  streams  from 
underneath  both  sides  of  the  raised  tongue  into 
the  front  part  of  this  extended  opening,  after 
having  first  formed  a  unison  at  the  fraenulum, 
and  having  produced  sound  by  its  aid  and  that^ 
of  the  vocal  lip. 

All  this  extensive  proceeding  is  gone  through 
with  for  every  sound  that  is  uttered,  nay,  for 
every  half  of  such  sound.  As  for  the  otlier 
half,  the  upper  j)ortion  of  the  oral  cavity  under- 
goes similar  changes ;  the  former  being  for  the 


THE  ORAL  CAVITY.  81 

expired  portion  of  such  sound,  tlie  latter  for  the 
inspired. 

It  appears  to  me — and  I  am  well  convinced 
tliat  tliis  observation  is  correct, — that  all 
breathing  through  the  mouth,  whether  for 
speech  or  otherwise,  is  carried  on  in  tlie  same 
manner  as  just  now  described.  For  its  verifica- 
tii)n  it  will  ])ut  be  necessary  to  watch  the  tongue 
of  a  dog  on  a  hot  summer  daj,  while  it  is  partly 
hanging  out  of  his  mouth.  The  heat  has  to 
some  extent  dried  up  the  fluid  in  his  mouth,  and 
he  is  panting  for  breath.  The  air  finds  its  way 
freely  into  his  mouth  over  and  above  the 
tongue,  hut  his  expiration  labors  under  diflS- 
culties;  and  yon  can  readily  observe  his  expired 
breath  lifting  up  his  tongue  at  regular  intervals 
from  underneath  the  same,  while  it  ir.  making 
its  exit  from  his  mouth. 

It  is,  however,  quite  possible  that  dogs  in- 
spire from  underneath  the  tongue,  and  expire 
from  above  it.  In  that  case,  his  panting  would 
arise  from  his  difliculty  in  inspimtion.  This,  in 
fact,  appears  to  be  the  most  likely.  His  tongue, 
overlapping  his  teeth,  would  make  the  entrance 


83  VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

of  the  air  into  his  moutli  a  rather  difficult  pro- 
ceeding; lience  his  efforts  in  giving  it  admission. 

There  being  three  inspirations  and  three  ex- 
pirations for  every  vowel  sound  that  is  uttered, 
the  two  movements  just  described  follow  each 
other  in  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time. 
Their  rapidity,  of  course,  de]3ends  upon  the 
rapidity  of  the  speech  w^hicli  is  being  uttered. 

The  rise  and  fall  of  the  tongue  is  identical 
with  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  voice.  The  tongue 
rises  to  make  room  beneath  it,  for  the  exit  of 
the  rising  voice ;  it  falls  to  increase  the  room 
above  it,  for  tlie  entrance  of  the  falling  voice. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  all  this  takes  place 
for  the   German  language  in  the  reverse  order. 

While  circles,  described  by  the  tongue  for 
English  speech,  are  large — the  rising  voice 
having  its  birth  in  the  lower  cavity  and,  there- 
fore, requiring  a  great  extension  of  room  there- 
in— the  circles  for  German  speech  are  much 
smaller.  Expiration  taking  place  direct  from 
the  tliroat,  there  is  no  necessity  for  a  greatly  in- 
creased space.  Nor  is  the  tongue  brought  into 
requisition  to  the  same  extent  as  in  English,  as 


THE  ORAL  CAVITY.  88 

a  vehicle  to  assist  in  forming  sound.  Hence,  for 
German  speech  the  tongue  is  required  to  be 
making  but  comparatively  few  movements, 
whicli,  apparently,  scarcely  remove  it  from  its 
normal  position.  I  say  "apparently,"  for, 
while  these  movements  are  scarcely  to  be 
noticed,  they  are  of  the  same  ofd^r  as  those 
made  by  an  English  tongue,  only  greatly  modi- 
fied in  measure  and  rapidity  of  execution. 

German  sounds,  consequently,  are  not  as  clear 
and  as  positive  as  English  sounds,  though  they 
are  louder,  especially  tlie  vowel  sounds,  in 
coming  direct  from  the  throat;  the  clearness 
of  expired  English  sounds  being  partly  due  to 
the  trumpet-shai>ed  funnel  through  which  they 
j)ass. 

All  there  is  of  harmony  and  melodious  sound 
in  sj>eech  or  song  is  produced  by  the  gradual 
dissolution  of  the  upper  voice  into  the  lower. 
The  rising  voice  produces  a  positive  sound,  a 
mould  out  (►f  one  ])iece,  as  it  were.  The  con- 
timious  How  of  the  voice,  after  the  production 
of  this  sound,  gradually  melting  into  the  falling 
voice,   adds  harmony  to  the  same,  as  illustrated 


84  VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

by  tlie  German  voice.  Tlie  falling  voice  gradu- 
ally advancing  into  the  rising  voice,  gives  its 
melody  to  English  sound. 

All  tlirongli  German  speech  and,  of  course, 
sono^,  there  is  a  rise  and  a  fall ;  alkthrou^h 
English  speech  and  song  there  is  a  fall  and  rise 
of  the  voice. 

This  is  beautifully  and  signiiicantly  expressed 
in  German  in  the  words : 

Das  I  Heben  und  |  Sinken   der  |  Stimme, 
which  takes  the  opposite  direction    in    English 
in  saying : 

The  voice  |  in  its  rise  |  and  its  fall. 
This  is  a  very  interesting  subject,  but  I  can- 
not at  present  elaborate  upon  \t  I  will  only 
call  attention  to  the  fact,  which  is  an  outcome 
of  this  condition,  that  we  find  tlu^.  long  syllable, 
as  a  rule,  at  the  end  of  each  line  of  English 
poetry;  while  German  poetry  admits  of  both 
endings  with  equal  felicity,  the  short  as  well 
as  the  long;  the  latter  l)eing,  in  reality,  not 
abruptly  so,  but  tapering  off  in  a  subdued  tone 
with  tlie  short  again. 


THE  MAN  WITHOUT  A  LARYNX. 


A  T  the  gathering  of  elocutionists  recently 
had  ill  Philadelphia,  a  member  of  the 
medical  faculty  spoke  of  a  man  whose  larynx  it 
had  become  necessary  to  remove  in  order  to  save 
his  life.  It  was  a  delicate  and  no  doubt  very 
skilful  oj^eration  successfully  performed.  Part 
of  the  operation  consisted  in  attaching  the  man's 
windpipe  to  his  throat,  into  which  an  opening 
had  been  made.  This  opening  was  closed  arti- 
ficially, but  in  such  a  manner  that  he  could 
freelv  breathe  throuojh  the  same. 

The  entire  apparatus  by  whose  aid  speech  is 
produced  having  been  destroyed,  there  w^as  great 
surprise  wdien,  sometime  after  the  operation,  the 
man  suddenly  commenced  to  speak.  His  voice, 
however,  was  not  what  it  had  been ;  it  had  lost 
its  elasticity,  its  cadence.  It  was  all  of  a  mono- 
tone, with  rather  a  hoarse,  hollow  sound,  and 
made  the  impression  of  being  pushed  out  rather 
than  flowing  out  freely  and  of  its  own  accord. 

Still  it  was   cpiite   natural,  and   he   could   even 
(85) 


«6  VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

sing,  ill  a  way.  It  was  also  distinct,  and  quite 
audible  at  a  moderate  distance. 

When  lie  spoke,  his  tongue  was  almost  con- 
tinually raised.  This  phenomenon  was  a  great 
puzzle,  there  being  no  way  in  which  to  explain 
it,  until  our  doctor  noticed  that  some  kind  of  a 
cartilage  had  been  formed  on  one  side  in  the 
throat,  and  the  air,  by  retroaction,  in  some  way 
caused  this  cartilage  to  vibrate.  Nature  liad  thus 
kindly  provided  him,  in  a  new  place,  with  a 
"new  vocal  cord,"  and  "this  it  was  which  gave 
the  man  his  voice. ' ' 

As  if  an  excrescence,  any  stick  almost,  could 
replace  the  vocal  cords  of  the  larynx,  the  won- 
derful, the  incomparable!  You  might  just  as 
soon  exj^ect  a  man's  power  of  vision  to  be  re- 
stored, in  being  replaced  by  an  outgrow^th  on 
his  face,  having  an  outward  appearance  some- 
what similar  to  his  lost  eye. 

It  would  not  well  l)e  possible  to  find  a  strong- 
er vindication  and  a  more  perfect  proof  of  the 
correctness  of  what  I  have  ascertained,  than  this 
doctor's  recital  of  this  case. 

Tlie  man's  inspired  voice,  supposing  him   to 


THE  MAN  WITHOUT  A  LARYNX.  87 

have  been  an  American,  was  gone,  and  there 
was  nothing  left  to  him  but  liis  expired  voice. 
All  there  was  that  could  liave  enabled  him  to 
speak  from  his  throat  had  been  destroyed. 

Yet  there  was  a  voice,  not  the  one  which  was 
dead,  but  another,  a  strange,  new  voice.  Some 
miracle  had  to  be  wrought,  to  explain  it,  and  so 
they  discovered  the  cartilage,  which  came  very 
opportune,  just  at  this  time ! 

We  know  better,  however.  The  voice  with 
which  he  spoke  was  the  one  hidden  underneath 
his  tongue.  The  latter  he  could  not  help  hut  con- 
tinually ' '  raise  ' '  to  let  his  voice  out.  All 
that  part  of  his  mouth  which  was  above  his 
tongue  was  inactive ;  his  inspired  voice  being 
lost,  there  was  nothing  for  it  to  do.  All  there 
was  of  activity  was  in  that  beneath  his  tongue. 

His  voice  was  sustained  by  the  expired  air, 
which  came  from  his  gullet,  and  which,  in 
making  its  way  out  from  beneath  the  tongue, 
made  the  man's  replica  and  vocal  lip,  which 
were  in  a  perfect  state  of  preservation,  resound 
with    the   sounds   of   speech   and   song.      They 


88  VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

spoke,  yet  with  that  monotone  wliich  character- 
izes the  tones  of  the  single  voice. 

The  cadence  was  wanting,  the  intonation,  the 
rise  and  the  fall  of  the  voice,  which  can  only  be 
produced  by  a  gradual  sinking  of  the  tones  of 
the  one  voice  into  the  other,  or  by  a  gradual 
rising  of  the  sounds  of  the  one  voice  out  of  the 
other.  The  man  spoke  with  the  sounds  of  the 
rising  voice  only,  if  he  was  an  Anglican,  which 
I  suppose  he  was,  having  been  deprived,  by  its 
destruction,  of  the  voice  which  produces  the 
falling  sounds. 


THE      SOUND      REPRESENTED     BY 
THE    LETTER   R. 


T  HAVE  heretofore  spoken  of  sounds  in  gen- 
eral, nor  do  I  propose  in  this  treatise  to 
enter  fully  into  tlie  details  of  the  production  of 
each  individual  sound. 

What  I  liave  ascertained  about  consonant 
sounds  I  will  illustrate  by  making  a  thorough 
analysis  of  the  production  of  the  sound  r.  In 
so  doing,  I  shall  have  to  repeat  things  already 
mentioned.  It  will  serve,  however,  to  give  a 
better  general  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  produc- 
tion of  the  consonant  sounds. 

For  years  I  had  been  a  martyr  to  this  sound, 
the  greatest  foe  known  to  the  helpless  foreigner 
wrestling  with  tlie  English  tongue.  After  all 
the  rest  of  the  sounds  had  surrendered,  the  r 
stood  out  by  itself,  holding  the  fort  and  hurling 
defiance  at  me. 

All  I  would  say  was  readily  understood  ex- 
cept words  containing  this  unconquerable  sound. 
(89) 


90 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


This  was  the  case  more  particularly  with  words 
in  which  the  /•  was  preceded  by  o,  ou,  «,  h,  p 
or  ii  (as  ^'),  or  in  which  it  was  succeeded  by  oo^ 
0,  ou^  etc.,  as  '^orange,"  ''organ,"  "origin," 
•order,"    "store,"    "core,"    "lore,"    "rose," 


lonie. 


"  brown," 


price, 


' '  row, "        "  Home, "         "  room, "        "  rook, ' ' 

"crook,"  "crank,"  "crow,"  "court,"  "cry," 

"broil,"       "brass," 

' '  proof, "    "  print, 

"scrape,"       "roar,"      "brewer,"      "brine," 

"breeze,"  "chord,"  "cur,"  "word,"  "world," 


"    "brook,"    "Brooklyn," 


'  art. 


liurt, 


part,"  etc. 


They  were  niy  sworn  enemies,  and  I  hated 
them  most  cordially.  Whenever  they  occurred, 
I  tried  to  get  out  of  the  scrape  l)y  substituting 
some  other  word,  if  I  could  possibly  find  one. 

To  this  sound's  obstinacy,  however,  I  am  in- 
debted for  my  final  victory  over  all  tlie  sounds. 
In  finally  yielding,  not  to  my  superior  general- 
ship, but  to  my  never  ceasing  pertinacity,  I 
starved  it  into  submission.  In  so  doing,  it  left 
to  me,  as  my  booty,  its  secret,  which  it  shared 
with  the  rest  of  the  sounds,  and  which  they  had 
kept    inviolate    together    ever    since    man    first 


SOUND  REPRESENTED  BY  LETTER  R.       91 

uttered  an  articulate  sound — their  secret  of  the 
dual  voice. 

1  had  become  surfeited  ^vith  hearing  and 
seemg-at  the  great  Chicago  Fair,  having  been 
there  for  months.  After  my  family  had  left, 
and  beinir  obliijed  to  remain  there  some  time 
lontrer,  I  retired  to  the  extreme  other  end  of 
the  city.  There,  in  the  solitude  of  Lincoln 
Park,  I  took  uj)  my  study  of  vocal  sounds  once 
more,  and,  retiring  completely  withm  myself, 
this  secret  came  to  me. 

Under  my  incessant  endeavors  to  produce 
the  English  7^  sound,  my  voice  at  last  ''split" 
in  two.  I  distinctly  felt  the  separation.  Each 
part  became  a  living  thing  by  itself;  one  part 
producing  an  /•  which  rolled  over  my  tongue 
back  into  the  larynx,  while  the  other  was  send- 
ing an  /•  to  the  surface  from  icnderneath  my 
tongue. 

It  frightened  me.  I  felt  that  something  un- 
usual had  happened.  I  repeated  these  sounds, 
and  then  stood  before  the  fact,  that  I  had  be- 
come a  participant  with  nature  in  one  of  its 
great  secrets — that  I  was  the  first  man  to  whom 


92 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


this  secret  liad  been  entrusted.  The  past  seemed 
to  be  suddenly  opened,  and  over  its  dark  bhie 
waters  there  was  one  ray  of  Hght,  which  came 
straight  to  nie.  This  was  tlie  vision  I  had  at 
the  time. 

I  felt  awed,  and  more  oppressed  than  elated, 
having  become  burdened  with  a  great  responsi- 
bility. Of  all  the  tongues  that  have  ever,  spoken, 
and  of  all  which  are  speaking  to-day,  no  man 
ever  knew  how  they  were  speaking. 

AYhat  I  found  out  about  the  letter  r  cannot  be 
said  in  a  few  words.  It  represents  two  sounds, 
materially  differing  in  the  manner  of  their  pro- 
duction. The  one  is  the  product  of  the  inner, 
the  other,  of  the  outer  voice,  or  the  voice  pro- 
duced by  inspiration  and  by  expiration  respec- 
tively. These  sounds  follow  each  other  in  sucli 
quick  succession  that  they  a})pear  as  one. 

The  first,  produced  by  inspiration,  requires 
that  the  tip  of  the  tongue  shall  iirst  touch  the 
highest  part  of  the  roof  of  the  mouth  it  can 
reach.  With  an  outward  movement,  that  is, 
with  the  tip  of  the  tongue  pointing  toward  th«j 
lips,    it   then   comes   down   to   the   root   of  the 


SOUND  REPRESENTED  BY  LETTER  R.       93 

lower  teeth.  After  this,  witli  a  vibratory  move- 
ment, it  rolls  inwardly  over  the  soft  part  of- the 
lower  jaw  until  it  reaches  the  enclosure  of  the 
replica  in  whose  boundary  it  momentarily  rests, 
while  still  continuing  to  vibrate. 

By  this  movement  the  tongue's  back  is  grad- 
ually raised  until  it  comes  in  contact  with  the 
soft-palate.  A  vacuum  having  been  created  by 
expiration  previous  to  this  movement,  the  air 
streams  inwardly  through  the  temporary  open- 
ings created  by  said  vibrations  between  the 
liack  of  the  tongue  and  the  soft-palate,  and  pro- 
duces the  sound  of  the  /•  of  the  falling  voice. 

This  sound,  though  created  by  an  inward  flow 
of  air,  becomes  audible  by  reverberation  over 
the  surface  of  the  tongue  outwardly.  In  car- 
rying out  this  movement,  tfie  tongue  is  con- 
tracted and  drawn  away  from  the  teeth. 

1  want  to  call  esj^ecial  attention  to  this,  as  the 
tongue  with  aU  sounds  of  the  expired  voice  pre- 
sents a  similar  appearance. 

To  produce  the  r  of  the  expired  voice,  the 
tongue's  tip  releases  its  hold  on  the  replica,  slips 
up  to  tlie  roof  of  the  mouth,  which  it  touches  a 


94 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


second  time,  and  tlien  coming  down  by  an  inner 
movement — tliat  is,  pointing  toward  the  tliroat 
—it  again  rises  upward  until  it  reaches  the  same 
spot  of  the  soft-palate  which  it  had  touched  be- 
fore, and  against  which  it  vibrates. 

While  making  this  movement,  the  tongue's 
body  is  raised  and  its  surface  flattened  out, 
spreading  its  sides  over  the  teeth  of  the  lower 
jaw^  on  both  sides.  The  air,  meanwhile,  being 
expired  from  beneath  the  sides  and  the  front  of 
the  tongue,  while  its  tip  is  vibrating  against  the 
soft-j)alate,  causes  a  thrilling  sound  to  be  heard 
issuing  from  beneath  the  tongue,  which  is  the  r 
of  the  rising  voice. 

The  lifting  up  of  the  body  of  the  tongue, 
while  its  tip  reaches  forward  and  upward,  takes 
place  for  all  sounds  of  the  expired  voice. 

The  tip  of  the  tongue,  consequently,  touches 
the  roof  of  the  mouth  three  times  in  producing 
the  r  sound.  All  these  laovements  beina:  re- 
peated  once  over  again  to  complete  this  sound, 
this  touch  is  really  made  six  times.  This  is 
equal  to  three  inspirations  and  three  expirations 
for  every  r  sound  which  is  ever  produced. 


SOUND  REPRESENTED  BY  LETTER  R.       95 

The  r  sound  as  we  hear  it,  or  even  when  we 
do  not  hear  it  (as  with  some  speakers  it  is  merely 
an  inspiration  and  an  expiration  of  tlie  air,  being 
devoid  of  tlie  thrill  produced  by  tlie  touch),  is 
always  produced  by  a  combination,  or,  more 
strictly  speaking,  by  a  succession  of  tttese  two 
movements.  The  r  of  the  upper  voice  is  pro- 
duced first,  that  of  the  lower  immediately  after- 
ward, the  two  running  together  and  producing 
one  continuous  sound. 

When  the  /•  sound  is  heard  to  roll  continually, 
as  it  does  with  some  speakers,  the  two  move- 
ments here  described  are  repeated  a  number  of 
times  in  close  succession.  It  is  done  by  a  suc- 
cession of  inspirations  and  expirations  carried  out 
in  this  manner,  ])()ssibly  ecpialling  sixty,  every 
time  they  pronoum-e  this  sound. 

These  two  movements,  the  first  for  inspiration 
the  latter  for  expiration,  are  in  a  similar  manner 
carried  out  for  all  sounds,  the  entire  scale  there- 
of, as  previously  mentioned. 

This  is  the  secret  of  the  letter  r  of  the  English 
language^  which,  after  solving,  gave  me  the  key 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


to  the  entire  situation,  as  all  sonnds  are  produce  J 

in  a  similar  manner. 

* 

It  seems  scarcely  possible  that  all  these  move- 
ments should  be  carried  out  during  the  short 
space  of  time  in  which  this  sound  is  pronounced." 

This  is  not  all,  however,  for  there  are  other 
movements  of  the  tongue,  connected  with  it,  of 
which  I  shall  speak  at  length  when  I  come  to 
the  vowel  sounds. 

Yet  man's  nature  is  so  alert  that  the  scholar, 
after  going  through  these  evolutions  several 
times,  will  find  that  he  can  execute  them  quite 
rapidly,  and  that  they  will  soon  l)ecome  auto- 
matic with  him. 

I  have  ilhistrated  the  production  of  the  7' 
sound  so  minutely  in  order  to  sliow  the  (jeneral 
manner  of  the  production  of  sounds.  For  the 
sounds  of  the  upper,  the  iidialed  voice,  the  tip 
of  the  tongue  always  rests  momentarily  near  or 
at  some  point  back  of  the  lower  teeth,  to  permit 
the  air  to  flow  freely  inwardly  over  the  tongue's 
surface.  For  those  of  the  lower,  or  exhaled 
voice,  the  tongue's  tip  rests  momentarily  against 
the  upper  teeth,  or  at  some  point  beyond   them, 


SOUND  REPRESENTED  BY  LETTER  R.      97 

to  permit   the  air  to  flow  freely  out  from  be- 
neath the  toDgue. 

I  still  \N'aiit  to  call  attention  to  the  shape  of 
the  movements  herein  mentioned.  For  the  in- 
spired sound,  the  tongue's  tip  moves  in  a  half 
circle,  pointing  outwardly;  for  the  expired 
sounds,  it  moves  in  a  half  circle,  pointing  in- 
wardly. These  two  segments  form  one  com- 
plete circle. 


CONSONANTS. 


/^"^ONSOKANTS  i^roper  are  noises,  produced 
by  certain  well-known,  mechanical  de- 
vices. We  cannot  take  a  noise  and  attach  to  it 
another  noise,  any  more  than  we  can  take  a 
bead  and  attach  to  it  another  bead.  It  takes  a 
string,  run  through  tlie  beads,  to  bind  them  to- 
gether. The  string  which  binds  the  consonants 
together  in  speech  and  makes  them  cohesive, 
and  speech  itself  coherent,  are  the  vowels. 
Where  several  consonants  follow  close  one  upon 
another,  we  must  run  in  our  string  of  vowels 
to  bind  them  together. 

The  nature  of  the  vowels  is  as  opposite  to 
that  of  tlie  consonants  as  soul  is  to  body.  They 
permeate  the  matter  of  the  consonants  and  sur- 
round it ;  they  uplift  it,  and  carry  it  along. 

Consonants  have  been  divided  into  two  clas- 
ses :  (1)  the  nmtes,  J,  p^  d^  ^,  c  (as  1c)  and  g 
hard  ;  and  (2)  the  semi- vowels  comprising  all  the 
other  consonant  sounds. 

The  above  are  all  the  nmtes  there  are,  ac- 


CONSONANTS.  99 

cording  tu  my  idea;  others,  liuwever,  have 
named  more  than  those. 

The  semi-vowels,  /,  m,  w,  /•,  are  also  called 
liquids. 

1  have  made  the  observation  that  the  mute 
sounds  never  follow  each  other  in  close  succes- 
sion in  one  and  the  same  syllable.  They  rarely, 
in  fact,  follow  close  upon  one  another  in  any 
word,  even  in  such  a  way  that  one  ends  a  syl- 
lable and  the  other  begins  a  new  one.  They  are 
inanimate,  and  can'  only  be  carried  along  on  the 
wings  of  a  vowel,  either  in  its  pure  shape  or  in 
the  shape  of  a  semi-vowel. 

The  voiced  consonants,  or  semi-vowels,  are  a 
combination  of  a  noise  and  a  musical  sound; 
the  latter  consisting,  in  the  vowel,  of  the 
syllal)le  to  which  said  consonant  belongs.  It 
precedes  them,  succeeds  them,  and  even  splits 
them  in  two,  inserting  itself  between  the  two 
parts. 

While  the  nmtes  are  produced  by  mechanical 
means  only,  the  organs  of  tlie  voice  being 
closed,  the  semi-vowels  are  voiced  sounds.  The 
voice  is  thrown  into   them  and  pervades  them. 


100 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


We  cannot  pronounce  any  consonant,  however, 
unless  it  is  preceded  by  a  vowel ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  vowel  need  not  precede  it  bodily.  There 
may  be  as  many  as  three  consonants  ahead  of  it, 
still  it  becomes  necessary  to  sound  the  vowel 
first,  in  an  undertone  at  least,  before  we  can 
begin  to  pronounce  the  first  consonant,  the 
vowels  being  the  tie  connecting  all  speech. 
Without  them  the  consonants  could  not  be 
moved,  they  would  be  inert. 

Consonants  and  vowels  are  so  intimately  con- 
nected and  interwoven  that  they  cannot  be 
treated  separately  when  their  construction  is 
being  considered.  I  shall,  therefore,  proceed 
now  with  the  medianical  construction  only  of 
the  consonant  sounds.  I  do  not  j^i'opose,  how- 
ever, to  do  so  in  detail,  but  shall  give  a  full 
account  of  the  representative  sounds  only. 

K. 


^is  not  greatly  dissimilar  in  its  construction 
to  r.  For  the  inspired  sound  the  tip  of  the 
tongue  takes  a  very  firm  hold  on  the  bottom  of 
the  inner  mouth,  whereby  its  b^ck  is  raised  close 


CONSONANTS.  101 

up  to  the  soft-palate.  Just  previous  to  tliat 
tliere  is  a  complete  expiration ;  the  throat  is 
closed,  and  a  vacuum  is  created  in  the  air-chan- 
nels. The  tip  of  the  tongue,  hy  suddenly  re- 
linquishing its  hold  on  the  replica,  causes  an 
oi)ening  to  be  made  between  the  raised  back  of 
the  tongue  and  the  soft-palate,  through  which 
the  air  is  forced,  producing  the  k  sound  of  the 
inspired  voice. 

For  the  expired  sound,  the  throat  is  again 
closed,  this  time,  however,  to  keep  the  inspired 
air  in  confinement. 

By  the  tip  of  the  tongue  relinquishing  its  hold 
on  the  replica,  as  just  stated,  and  then  taking 
a  firm  hold  against  the  highest  point  of  the  soft- 
palate  which  it  can  reach,  the  confined  air,  upon 
the  tongue's  tip  suddenly  releavsing  this  hold, 
streams  out  from  beneath  the  sides  of  the 
tongue  into  the  replica.  This  sudden  movement 
causes  the  explosion  whose  result  is  the  forma- 
tion of  the  expired  k  sound. 

Upper  and  lower  k  follow  each  other  in  such 
quick  succession  that  they  appear  as  one  sound. 

AVhat  is  most  remarkable  in  this  connection  is 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

tlie  fact,  that,  while  the  manner  in  which  thej 
are  produced  varies  considerably  in  its  detail, 
the  result  should  be  so  similar  that  the  most  at- 
tentive ear  cannot  detect  any  difference  between 
them.  The  same  remark  may  be  applied  to  r, 
and  all  the  i-est  of  the  consonants. 

For  k  the  touch  of  the  tip  of  the  tongue  ap- 
pears to  be  even  higher  than  for  ?\  and  the  circles 
the  tongue  describes  are,  in  consequence,  larger. 

G  (hard). 

G  as  in  "  good,"  is  a  modification  of  k.  The 
tongue's  tip  does  not  press  so  hard  against  the 
bottom  of  the  replica  or  the  soft-palate  either. 
Its  pressure,  therefore,  when  released,  does  not 
produce  so  strong  an  explosion,  either  for  the 
inspired  or  the  expired  g  sound. 

a. 

Q  is  the  same  sound  as  k,  followed  l)y  u. 

X. 
^is  also  the  same  as  k,  followed  by  s. 


CONSONANTS.  103 

B. 

Jj  touches  the  hard-palate,  comes  down  to  tne 
roots  of  the  lower  teeth ;  the  lips  are  pressed  to- 
gether all  along  the  line,  which  pressure,  being 
released,  results  in  an  explosion.  This  is  for 
the  inspired  sound.  For  the  expired  sound,  the 
same  proceeding  takes  place,  with  the  only  dif- 
ference that  the  tip  of  the  tongue  rests  against 
the  root  of  the  upper  teeth.  The  circles,  which 
the  tongue  describes,  are  but  moderately  large. 


For  p  the  same  proceeding  is  gone  through 
with  as  for  h,  only  with  increased  vigor  of 
movements.  The  latter  are  more  rapid,  the  lips 
are  pressed  more  firmly  together,  the  tongue's 
tip  reaches  up  higher,  touching  the  soft-palate, 
and  again  lower  down  pressing  against  the  bot- 
tom of  the  replica  so  as  to  create  a  larger  space 
of  confined  air  which,  when  released,  causes  a 
greater  explosion  through  the  suddenly  parted 
lips  than  for  b.  The  circles,  of  course,  are 
also  larger. 


104 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


M,  the  same  as  h  and  />,  is  a  lip-sound.  The 
tip  of  the  tongue  slightly  touches  first  the  upper 
edge  of  the  lower  teeth  for  the  inspired,  then 
the  lower  edge  of  the  upper  teeth  for  the  ex- 
pired sound.  With  each  touch  of  the  teeth  the 
lips,  which  have  been  rather  firmly  closed  all 
along  the  line,  are  released,  not  suddenly  as  for 
h  and  p,  but  with  a  slower  movement.  The 
sound  comes  through  the  nose.  The  circles  are 
about  the  same  as  for  h. 

N. 

JV  is  produced  in  a  similar  manner  to  77i.  The 
difference  is  that  the  teeth  are  closed,  where  the 
lips  were  in  the  former  case.  The  sound  comes 
through  the  nose.  The  circles  are  larger  than 
for  m. 

D. 

D  is  produced  by  the  tip  of  the  tongue  and 
the  teeth ;  the  former  touches  the  lower  teeth 
first,  then  the  upper.  Tlie  tongue's  tip  describes 
but  a  small  circle. 


CONSONANTS.  105 

T. 

y  is  produced  by  the  tip  of  the  tongue  and 
the  teeth,  the  same  as  d.  The  former  touches 
the  root  of  the  hjwer  teeth  first,  then  that  of  the 
upper.  The  toucli  is  higher  up  and  lower  down 
than  for  d,  and  is  far  more  distinct.  It  is  of 
shorter  duration  than  for  d,  being  quicker  and 
more  decided. 

Th  (sharp). 

Th  sharp,  as  in  ''tliorn,"  "three,"  etc.,  is 
produced  by  the  tongue's  tip  passing  through 
the  almost  closed  teeth.  While  in  this  position 
it  first  touches  the  lower  teeth,  then  the  upper, 
oscillating  between  them.  The  air  passing 
through  this  narrow  aperture,  first  inwardly 
then  outwardly,  with  a  quick  movement,  pro- 
duces the  well-known  sound  of  sharp  th. 

Alth.ough  the  tongue  appears  to  be  con- 
tinuously inserted  between  the  teeth,  during  the 
production  of  this  sound,  it  really  disappears 
between  these  movements.  During  this  dis- 
appearance it  describes  a  circular  movement  in 
the  oral   cavity,    by  which  the  sound,  which  is 


106 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


inhaled,  is  connected  with  that  wliich  is  exhaled. 
Tlie  sound,  which  also  appears  to  be  continuous, 
is  really  interrupted,  likewise,  for  a  moment, 
during  which  this  circular  movement  is  being 
carried  out. 

Th  (soft). 


For  th,  as  in  ''the,"  "that,"  ''though," 
etc.,  the  same  movements  are  gone  througli 
with  as  for  sharp  t/i,  but  the  teeth  are  further 
apart,  the  tongue's  tip  does  not  pass  so  far  in 
between  them,  and  the  circles  are  smaller.  The 
lips  are  not  so  far  apart,  nor  are  the  teeth  shown 
as  much  as  for  sharp  th. 

The  movements  of  the  lips  can  be  closely 
watched  for  sharp  th.  The  upper  lip  is  with- 
drawn first,  then  the  h^wer,  next  the  upper,  and 
finally  tlie  lower  again.  This  is  assuming  that 
the  sound  is  repeated  twice,  whicli,  in  fact,  it  is 
every  time  it  is  pronounced. 

The  th  sound  comes  next  to  tliat  of  /•,  in  the  dif- 
ficulty of  its  execution  by  foreigners.    The  same 
being  unknown  to  other  European  languages 
except  the  Spanish,  it  is  a  great  stumbling-block 


CONSONANTS.  107 

to  the  foreign  tongue.  Yet  its  execution  is  not 
any  more  difficult  than  that  of  almost  any  otlier 
consonant.  The  trouble  is  that  its  mode  of  pro- 
duction has  heretofore  never  been  accurately 
described. 

P. 

i^,  for  its  inspired  sound,  is  produced  by  the 
lower  lip  reaching  up  to  the  upper  teeth.  AVhile 
the  tongue's  tip  touches  the  lower  teeth,  the  air 
is  drawn  in  above  the  tongue  through  a  slight 
opening  between  the  lower  lip  and  the  upper 
teeth.  For  its  expired  sound  the  tip  of  the 
tongue  touches  the  upper  teeth,  the  air  being 
forced  out  between  the  raised  lip  and  the  lower 
side  of  the  tongue. 

V. 

Fis  produced  in  the  same  manner  as/*.  The 
difference  consists  in  lip  and  teeth  meeting  less 
closely,  and  the  tip  of  the  tongue  touching  the 
teeth  more  lightly.  The  air  is  not  set  in  such 
quick  motion,  and  the  sound  is  produced  with 
less  force. 


108  VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 

The  circles  for  v  are,  of  course,  smaller  tlian 
they  are  for/* 

S. 

S  is  produced  by  tlie  teeth  coming  close  to- 
gether, the  tip  of  the  tongue  first  touching  the 
lower  and  then  the  upper  teeth  near  their  edge, 
the  air  being  first  inspired  and  then  expired  with 
a  hissing  sound. 

C. 

O  is  the  same  as  s,  only  carried  out  with  less 
force  throughout,  and  the  tongue's  tip  not 
touching  the  teeth  near  their  edge  but  at  their 
roots. 

z. 

Z  is  a  still  milder  way  of  going  through  the 
same  performance.  All  the  movements  are 
carried  out  in  the  softest  manner  possible,  and 
the  tongue's  tip  touching  the  gums  of  the  teeth 
instead  of  their  edge  as  for  s,  or  their  roots  as 
for  G. 

L. 

For  I  the  tip  of  the  tongue  vibrates  between 


CONSONANTS.  109 

the  upj)er  and  lower  teeth,  which  come  pretty 
close  together.  Each  vibration  means  one  in- 
spiration and  one  expiration.  Eacli  vibration, 
of  course,  also  stands  for  one  circle  up  and  one 
down,  which  the  tongue  describes  through  the 
oral  cavity,  the  circles  being  large. 

H. 

/Tis  equal  to  a  quick  inspiration  followed  by 
a  strong  and  long  contiiuied  expiration.  There 
is  an  expiration,  however,  preceding  the  inspira- 
tion, so  as  to  insure  a  full  volume  of  air  being 
inspired,  which  in  turn  again  insures  the  strong 
expiration,  which  carries  the  sound.  The  cir- 
cles are  large. 

Y. 

There  is  a  great  similarity  between  y  and  A, 
both  behig  produced  by  strong  aspirations  only, 
and  without  any  touch,  the  same  as  the  vowels. 
The  difference  is  that  for  h  all  the  avenues  are 
kept  wide  open,  while  for  y  they  are  drawn  close 
together,  leaving  but  a  narrow  channel  for  the 
air  to  pass  through.  Again,  for  h  there  is  an  ex- 


110 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


piration,  an  inspiration  and  an  expiration,  while 
for  y  there  is  an  inspiration,  an  expiration  and  an 
inspiration.  The  stress  is  on  the  expiration  for  A, 
and  on  the  inspiration  for  y,  making  the  former 
an  expired  and  the  latter  an  inspired  sound. 
For  the  inspired  y  sound,  the  body  of  the  tongue 
closely  approaches  the  roof  of  the  mouth,  while 
for  the  expired  sound  it  comes  very  near  to  the 
floor  of  the  mouth,  the  air  jjressing  through  these 
narrow  openings,  first  inwardly,  and  then  out- 
wardly. 

G  (soft). 

G  in  ''George,"  "gipsy,"  etc.,  is  composed 
of  d  and  y,  with  the  air-channels  still  more 
closely  compressed,  however,  than  for  y  alone. 


W. 


TF",  double  u,  or,  more  strictly  speaking, 
double  6>,  is  composed  of  these  vowels,  oo,  com- 
bined with  an  open  v,  the  vowel  sound  vibrating 
through  this  consonant  making  it  an  open  sound 
very  much  like  a  vowel. 

This  attempt  at  a  description  of  the  consonant 


CONSONANTS.  Ill 

sounds  is  only  correct  in  a  general  sense ;  nor  is 
it  a  full  description,  in  any  sense.  There  are 
many  consonants,  which  are  not  represented  by 
the  sign  of  a  letter,  and  whose  existence  can 
only  be  made  clear  to  the  eye,  by  showing  them 
up  in  their  combination  with  other  sounds. 
These  varieties  I  shall  not  attempt  to  describe. 
Incomplete,  however,  as  this  description  of  the 
construction  of  the  consonant  sounds  may  be, 
it  probably  comes  nearer  to  the  facts  than  any 
that  has  yet  been  attempted. 

Besides,  the  relationship  existing  between 
consonants  and  vowels  is  so  close  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  separate  the  one  from  the  other.  This 
relationship  I  shall  endeavor  to  describe  more 
minutely,  when    I  shall  reach  the  vowel  sounds. 

Then  there  is  the  important  question  of  the 
iitipettis  given  to  the  different  consonants.  There 
are  those  whose  impetus  is  toward  inspiration, 
those  wliose  impetus  is  toward  expiration,  and 
those  which  vary  lietween  the  two. 

I  have  found  that  the  impetus  of  consonants 
whose  j)rincipal  sound  is  i)roduced  by  a  strong 
impact  of  the  tip  of  the  tongue  with  the  replica, 


112 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


causing  an  explosion  above  the  tongue,  as  liard 
g^  Tc^  qio^  a?,  ^',  y,  hard  c^  and  r^  are  mainly  in- 
spired as  the  tongue  first  rises,  and  tlien  falls 
for  them.  Those  whose  main  sound  is  produced 
by  impact  of  the  tip  of  the  tongue  with  the  roof 
of  the  mouth,  as/*,  Z,  n,  jt>,  ^,  «,  all  of  which  re- 
quire more  or  less  compression,  and  a  propor- 
tionate explosion  of  air  beneath  the  tongue,  are 
mainly  outgoing  sounds,  asthe  tongue  first  falls 
and  then  rises  for  tliem.  That  is,  their  main 
sound  is  expired,  Avhile  in  the  former  case  it 
is  inspired.  The  impact  of  the  tip  of  the 
tongue  with  the  lower  gum  means  the  rising  of 
the  back  of  the  tongue,  creating  a  narrow  pas- 
sage between  the  latter  and  the  soft-palate, 
through  which  the  air  streams  inwardly,  while 
an  impact  of  the  tip  of  the  tongue  with  the  roof 
of  the  mouth  means  a  conjpression  downward, 
creating  a  narrow  passage  between  the  lower 
side  of  the  tongue  and  the  lower  gum,  through 
which  the  air  passes  outwardly. 

There  now  remain  the  consonants  5,  d^  m,  ^', 

These  are  of  a  medium  calibre.     Their  sound 


CONSONANTS.  113 

is  neither  distinctly  ingoing  nor  outgoing,  ]jiit  it 
varies  according  to  tlieir  position.  As  a  rule, 
wlien  they  are  initial  sounds,  it  is  ingoing,  when 
they  are  final,  it  is  outgoing. 

In  this  connection  I  have  also  made  the  fol- 
lowing observation  :  "We  say  :  h,  c,  d,  </,  p,  t, 
v,  s.  Again  we  say :  /,  Z,  ?/i,  n,  s,  a?,  h.  In 
the  first  instance,  the  vowel  sound  e  follows, 
while  in  the  last  it  precedes  the  sound  of  the 
consonant. 

The  same  order  obtains  with  the  alphabets  of 
most  civilized  tongues.  There  must  be  a  deep 
significance  in  this.  We  could  not  reverse  this 
order  of  things,  and  say :  ih,  tc,  id,  ig,  ip,  it, 
iv,  iz^  nor  could  we  say:  fe,  le,  me,  ne,  se, 
without  making  an  effort  in  doing  so.  The  rea- 
son is,  that  the  mos^  natural  way  of  speaking  is 
by  inspiration,  followed  by  expiration;  the 
vowel  sound  at  the  end  in  the  first  instance,  and 
at  the  beginning  in  the  second,  securing  this  re- 
sult. 

When  we  say :  h,  c,  d,  etc. ,  tne  long  e  is  an 
outgoing  sound.  This  makes  the  consonant  sound 
preceding   it  ingoing.     While,  when    we   say : 


114 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


y,  I,  7?i,  n,  etc.,  tlie  e  preceding  the  consonant 
is  ingoing,  being  short  and  inhaled ;  this  makes 
the  consonant  following  outgoing. 

In  speaking  of  the  impetus  of  a  sound  being 
ingoing  or  outgoing,  I  must  still  remark  that 
the  same  is  identical  with  the  last  manner  of 
breathing  for  such  sound ;  that  is,  while  there 
are  three  inspirations  and  three  expirations  as  a 
minimum  for  such  sound,  the  last  one  of  these 
six,  or  twelve,  or  eighteen,  carries  with  it  the 
sound  proper  and  is  prolonged  in  so  doing.  If 
this  last  breathing  is  ingoing,  then  the  sound  is 
ingoing;  if  it  is  outgoing,  then  the  sound  is 
outgoing. 

No  sound  can  be  uttered  all  by  itself  as 
either  ingoing  or  outgoing.  The  ingoing  sound 
must  be  accompanied  by  an  outgoing  sound, 
though  ever  so  weak,  and  the  outgoing  must  be 
accompanied  by  an  ingoing,  though  ever  so 
weak;  the  weakness  of  the  one  giving  an  im- 
petus to  the  other.  It  gives  the  otlier  an  op- 
portunity to  gather  strength,  and  be  produced 
with  full  force. 

The  "ethics"  of  sound,  if  I  may  be  permitted 


^f^iVLHSiTY 


or 


'S^ronH^ 


CONSONANTS.  115 

to  use  such  an  expression,  demand  tliat  inspira- 
tion and  expiration  for  vowels  should  follow  one 
another  in  such  a  manner  as  to  enable  them  to 
embrace  the  consonants  with  ease,  and  to  carry 
them  along  with  a  graceful  movement. 

This  is  what  is  called  the  cadence,  the  rhyth- 
mical modulation  of  the  voice.  It  is,  therefore, 
necessary  that  consonants  should  follow  one  an- 
other in  such  a  manner  that  these  ''ethics"  can 
be  successfully  earned  out. 

An  ingoing  consonant  should  follow  one  that 
is  outgoing,  and  vice  versa ;  and  a  mute  should 
always  be  embraced  between  two  semi- vowels, 
or  two  vowels,  or  a  semi- vowel  and  a  vowel. 
Persons,  whose  style  is  good,  or  who  write  good 
poetry,  follow  this  nile  instinctively.  Those 
who  write  a  bad  or  hard  style,  sin  against  it  con- 
tinually. 

The  fact  is,  that  each  word  by  itself,  with 
very  rare  exceptions,  is  constructed  in  strict  con- 
fonnity  with  this  rule.  It  is  by  joining  one 
word  on  to  another,  not  in  harmony  therewith 
— that  is,  (me  for  which  "we  do  not  breathe  in 
proper  se^pience  with  the  preceding  or  succeeding 


116 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


one — that  the  most  flagrant  sins  against  style  or 
rhythm  are  committed. 

Tlie  law  underlying  it  all  is  the  one  which 
makes  breatliing  for  speech  easy.  As  soon  as 
there  is  a  demand  made  on  the  voice  for  eitlier 
too  many  expirations  or  too  many  inspirations 
following  each  other  in  close  succession,  and 
without  giving  tlie  speaker  an  opportunity  to 
recuperate  his  breath — that  is,  to  bring  it  back 
to  an  equilibrium  by  restoring  the  air,  which  was 
'^  held  "  at  the  proper  time  and  place — the  voice 
l>ecomes  strained,  and  thus  loses  its  power  for 
uttering  rhythmical  sounds.  This  "proper  time 
and  ])lace"  is  at  the  end  of  a  sentence. 

While  Helinholtz  has  given  to  the  world 
valid  reasons  for  the  necessity  of  musical  sounds 
following  one  another  in  certain  scales  and  in- 
tervals, to  produce  harmony  in  music,  no  one 
has,  as  yet,  touched  upon  the  reasons  why  vocal 
sounds  should  follow  one  another  in  a  given 
order,  to  produce  music  in  speech  or  song. 

There  is  a  very  important  point  in  connection 
with  consonant  sounds  which  I  omitted  to  men- 
tion before.      The   tip  of   the  tongue,  to  which 


CONSONANTS.  '  117 

is  assigned  as  important  a  rule  in  the  production 
of  sound  iis  there  is  to  tlie  tip  of  the  lingers  for 
the  sensation  of  feeling,  assumes  different 
shapes  for  the  production  of  various  sounds. 
As  a  rule,  these  shapes,  for  the  production  of 
English  sounds,  are  far  more  positive  than  they 
are  for  German  sounds.  For  the  latter,  it 
touches  the  oral  cavity,  or  the  lower  gum,  but 
lightly,  and  does  not  assume  such  decided  shapes 
that  they  could  be  readily  described.  To  pro- 
duce correct  English  speech,  this  state  of  indif- 
ference is  changed  into  one  of  decided  energy. 
To  produce  the  k  sound,  it  comes  to  a  sharp 
point,  something  like  the  toes  of  a  dancer,  when 
resting  her  entire  body  on  the  same.  After  this 
shape  has  been  assumed,  it  ^^  kicks"  the  Hoor 
of  the  mouth  for  inspiratioii  and  agjiin  its  roof 
for  expiration,  with  a  <piick  but  very  positive 
movement. 

For  r,  although  it  retains  this  8haj>e,  it  is 
more  relaxed,  and  trails  along  the  roof  of  the 
mouth  for  expirntioii.  aiul  along  its  floor  for  in- 
spiration. 

For  /  the  tongue's  tip  is  less  rigid  still,  and 


118 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


its  shape  is  somewhat  bent ;  for  the  lower  sound, 
it  is  bent  upward ;  for  the  upper,  downward. 

For  771  it  is  bent  down  for  both  sounds,  while 
its  entire  front  takes  a  lirni  hold  in  the  ring  of 
the  palate  for  the  expired  sound,  and  again  in 
that  of  the  lower  gum  for  the  inspired  sound. 

The  same  shape  of  the  tip  of  the  tongue  pre- 
vails for  n,  t,  jp. 

The  less  strain  tliere  is  on  a  sound,  the  more 
relaxed  will  be  the  tip  of  the  tongue.  Tins  is  a 
point  to  which  foreigners  must  pay  attention,  if 
they  want  to  produce  English  sounds  with  that 
energy  wliich  is  so  characteristic  of  them. 

The  main  reason  for  the  various  shapes 
assumed  by  the  tip  of  the  tongue  is  to  enable 
the  front  of  the  tongue  to  become  firmly  sealed 
against  the  wall  of  the  oral  cavity,  and  thus  to 
create  an  air-tight  compartment  previous  to  an 
explosion  of  air  for  sounds  which  are  to  be  loud 
and  positive.  For  weaker  sounds,  this  hold  is 
more  or  less  relaxed. 


SOUND  AND  NERVES. 


T^OES  this  impact,  of  which  I  have  just 
^^  spoken,  not  mean  more,  however,  than 
simply  a  mechanical  action  to  concentrate  the  air 
above  or  beneath  the  tongue's  tip,  which,  upon 
being  released,  creates  an  explosion?  Would 
that  and  the  other  mechanical  actions  of  which 
I  have  spoken  suffice  in  bringing  about  all  the 
shadings  of  the  consonant  sounds? 

And  who  would  seriously  want  to  say  that 
these  sounds  are,  in  reality,  nothing  but  noises, 
that   there   is   no  soul  in  them  ? 

Is  it  necessary  to  give  examples?  Every  word 
spoken  with  an  emphasis  will  show  to  the  con- 
trary. For  is  there  nothing  in  the  th  or  n  in 
*Hhunder,"  when  used  as  an  exclamation  of 
surprise  or  impatience?  or  in  the  Z  of  "  love," 
when  addressing  your  bride,  etc.  ? 

While  I  concede  to  the  vowels  the  first  place 
in  conveying  the  meaning  of  our  soul,  the  con- 
sonants are  by  no  means  devoid  of  such  mean- 
ing. 

(119) 


120 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


I  have  heretofore  spoken  of  tlie  ''  air-chan- 
nels" into  which,  by  mechanical  means,  the 
''air-sparks,"  as  I  call  them,  are  drawn — those 
swift,  meteoric  currents  of  air  which  produce 
sound — not  only  sounds,  so  called,  as  repre- 
sented by  a  note  or  a  letter,  but  all  the  rami- 
fications of  sounds  connected  with  each  of  these 
sounds.  Ea^i  ramification  represents  one  of 
these  sparks,  purposely  inspired,  or  expired  for 
the  same.  Their  action  is  so  swift,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  so  irregular,  that  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  invent  a  new  mode  of  counting  time, 
should  we  be  called  upon  to  give  an  account 
of  it. 

Just  what  the  air-passages  are,  into  which  the 
air-sparks  are  drawn,  or  from  which  they 
emerge,  I  cannot  say,  nor  how  the  air  reaches 
them  through  the  trachea  or  the  oesophagus.  I 
am  of  the  opinion,  however,  that  they  are  dif- 
fused throughout  a  large  area  of  our  body,  the 
same  almost  as  the  nerves  are.  They  stand  in 
intimate  relation  to  the  latter.  Thus  only  can 
we  account  for  the  emotional  nature  of  our 
voice. 


SOUND  AND  NERVES.  181 

They  are  7ierves  which  become  audible .^  when 
tlie  air  they  contain  is  set  in  motion,  or,  more 
pro]>erly  speaking,  perhaps,  when  a  stream  of 
air  is  passed  through  the;n.  This  might  be 
modified  again  by  saying  that  there  are  nerves 
through  whose  action  a  particular  air-channel  is 
expanded  or  contracted.  These  nerves,  while  so 
acting,  at  the  same  time  impart  to  the  sound, 
thereby  created,  its  spiritual,  emotional  char- 
acter. 

There  are  knots  in  which  these  sound-nerves 
centre,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  one  of  these 
may  be  located  between  the  eyes,  where  it  is 
supposed  by  many  that  the  "voice  comes  from." 

There  are  other  knots,  but  I  am  not  yet  pre- 
pared to  speak  of  them  with  sufficient  intel- 
ligence. 

The  '  'air-channels  and  nerves' '  are  of  so  sub- 
tle a  nature  that  their  very  existence  has  so  far 
eluded  the  close  scrutiny  of  investigators.  It 
seems,  though,  as  if  the  nerves  which  carry  the 
intelligence,  and  those  which  enable  us  to  hear, 
come  to  a  focus  at  the  tip  of  the  tongue,  from 
which,  as  messengers  from  the  brain  and  the  ear, 


122 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


they  impart  tlieir  missives  by  imj^act   to  certain 
points  of  the  palate,  whispering  to  them  what 


mg 


they  must  do.   The  instant  the  tip  of  the 
touches  these   points,   the  nerves 
carry  out  tliese  commands. 

All  this  relates  to  the  consonant  sounds.  But 
how  about  the  vowels  ?  There  being  no  impact, 
how  is  the  intelligence  imparted  for  them  ?  I 
cannot  even  venture  to  guess.  That  the  nerves 
for  them  centre  in  the  vocal  cord  and  lip,  I  feel 
well  assured ;  and  I  can  only  assume,  in  default 
of  any  mechanical  action,  that  there  are  agents 
at  work  even  subtler  than  the  nerves  which  act 
as  mediators  between  them  and  the  mind,  as 
well  as  our  power  of  hearing. 

While  we  draw  the  air  into  the  air-channels 
mechanically,  it  is  not  tlience  converted  into 
sound  without  the  interference  of  the  sound- 
nerves,  which  give  character  to  the  sound,  as, 
of  course,  no  mere  mechanical  action  would  be 
able  to  do. 

It  is  a  great  mistake,  therefore,  when  speak- 
ing of  the  voice,  to  say  :  "It  is  simply  a  musical 
instrument    like   a7iy  other. "      "  Simple, ' '    in- 


SOUND  AND  NERVES.  128 

deed !  Eveu  niecliai)icHlly  speaking,  it  is  not 
one  but  a  dozen  instruments  fused  into  one,  and 
possessbig  the  main  qualities  of  all  these.  When 
it  comes  to  the  higher  qualities,  however,  those 
imparted  to  it  by  the  soul,  we  stand,  as  ever,  be- 
fore an  inscrutable  mystery. 

Our  attempts  at  creating  sounds  by  musical 
instruments,  though  these  sounds  may  be  pleasing 
to  our  ear  (so  is  a  painted  landscape  to  our  eye) 
as  compared  with  the  voice,  are  but  of  a  crude 
nature,  both  as  to  the  manner  of  their  produc- 
tion and  as  to  the  product  itself,  even  though 
from  a  mere  artistic  standpoint  they  may  reach 
the  highest  point  of  excellence. 

I  am  not  as  yet  prepared  to  enter  the  field  in 
explanation  of  the  vowel  sounds,  and  their  rela- 
tion to  the  construction  of  the  consonant  sounds, 
with  sufficient  intelligence  to  do  so  at  the 
present  moment.  I  am  already  in  possession  of  a 
good  deal  of  material,  however,  as  a  basis  for 
such  an  exposition,  and  I  shall  endeavor  to  bring 
it  into  shape,  as  soon  as  I  shall  be  able  to  do  so. 
Meantime,  I  liave  thought  it  best  to  publish 
what    I  liHve  already  written  out,  having  waited 


124 


VOCAL  UTTERANCE. 


a  great  many  years  before  I  tliuiiglit  I  liad  suf- 
ficient light  on  tlie  subject  to  venture  out 
witli  it. 

This,  I  trust,  will  be  of  some  benefit,  though 
there  is  still  much  to  be  said,  which  is  of  im- 
portance to  the  better  understanding  and  devel- 
opment of  the  voice. 

In  this  connection  I  beg  to  mention  with 
grateful  acknowledgment  that  Mr.  Edgar  S. 
Werner,  from  the  very  beginning  of  my  ac- 
quaintance with  him,  has  listened  to  the  recital 
of  my  investigations  with  the  most  appreciative 
kindness.  It  is  also  with  his  advice  and  consent, 
that  I  have  postponed  the  publication  of  the 
rest  of  my  investigations  until  they  shall  have 
attained  a  more  perfect  shape  than  they  have  at 
the  time  of  this  writing. 


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